Ninth Time's the Charm
by Fanatic Whovian Writer
Summary: What if Nine didn't change his face and personality when he regenerated? Ten never comes, at least not yet. Series 2 with some original chapters and Nine instead of Ten. Chapter 11: Rise of the Cybermen. How will 9 cope with the parallel world and an old enemy made new?
1. The Christmas Invasion

**My take on Series 2 with Nine. It will be fairly different, as the two  
doctors are different, but not super AU, mind you. I love Nine, though Ten  
probably ties for my favorite, but I always feel that Nine doesn't get enough  
love, and Ten gets it all, so here's a story for all those Nine lovers out there.  
Plus I love Doctor/Rose, so be prepared for that.**

"Rose... before I go, I just want to tell you: you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I!" the doctor had a huge grin from ear to ear watching Rose as he felt the regeneration energy running through. Rose looked completely devastated, and confused, bless her heart.

"I came back to prevent you from dying," Rose said, and the doctor looked at her confused himself now, seeing her eyes turn a bright gold. His eyes widened, and he couldn't hold it in anymore. The energy was released. Rose watched him, her eyes burning gold, as a sort of yellow powder came from her eyes towards the doctor engulfed with regeneration energy. Rose stumbled back, her eyes back to normal seeing the doctor engulfed in what seemed to be flames. She wanted to rush up to him and try to stop whatever it was, because it surely was painful, at least it looked like it would be. However, then, the flame like energy disappeared, revealing the same doctor with the short hair that she knew.

"Y-you said you would change," Rose said confused as to what had happened, and what he meant by changing, because he looked just like normal, just like she knew.

"I don't look different?" the doctor raised an eyebrow and inspect himself, "Definitely feel the same." The doctor looked up at Rose before he smiled from ear to ear much like he had just moment ago before it diminished slightly. "Rose, you are fantastic."

"What did I do?" Rose asked with a small smile of her own; his smile was quite contagious.

"Everything," the doctor replied moving closer to her, giving her a large hug. However, just moments later, without being able to say anything else, the doctor flew back, as if an invisible force pushed him back. He held his stomach, and smiled at Rose, before breathing out a hint of the regeneration energy.

"I'll be fine, I promise," the doctor said looking at her his face in pain slightly, "I have to sleep, for a while. We need to get back to Earth." The doctor quickly moved over to the panel, the TARDIS already in flight. He punched in a few keys and Rose approached him.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked seeing the pained expression and the doctor simply smiled from ear to ear once more standing up straight.

"Positi-" the doctor replied as he was hit again by the invisible force, telling him to go to sleep, "Once I can get to sleep…" The doctor looked back at the control panel and moved around the circular center, hitting a few more buttons, his movements much slower than he had in the past. The TARDIS was shaking much worse than it had before, knocking the two of them to the side, but the doctor managed to keep himself near the panel. "I'll explain later, I promise. You do… trust me?"

"With my life," Rose said with a small nod. The doctor collapsed to his knees, barely managing to stay near the console, holding himself up with his arms now. Rose hurried and held up the doctor, worried out of her mind for him.

"Just press… t-the blue one," the doctor struggled to get out, having a hard time staying up even with Rose's help. Rose nodded, and took one of her arms, the other still holding up the doctor, pressing the blue button nearest to them. The doctor smiled, as he fell to the floor, bringing Rose with him.

"I will be fine," the doctor said looking at her, who was trying to get him back up, as the TARDIS engine went off, meaning they had landed. She pulled him up, and he seemed to fly forwards, out of the TARDIS doors, as if there was momentum from her pulling him up, or some invisible force pushing him out, still on his feet, like the TARDIS was throwing him up. Rose followed him quickly, seeing the doctor with his arms around Mickey and Jackie.

"Ricky. Jackie. Merry Christmas," the doctor said before collapsing onto the ground, his leather jacket crooked on his body.

"What's wrong with him?" Jackie asked.

"I-I don't know," Rose replied, rushing to the doctor's side, "We should get him to a bed." Jackie nodded, and Mickey answered by helping Rose and Jackie pick the doctor up with a little bit of effort, but the three managed it, though the doctor ended up in an odd position as they carried him up the stairs up to the Tylers' apartment. He was set on Rose's bed, and Jackie and Mickey left, and Rose had took it upon herself to dress the doctor in more comfortable clothes, some robes that Jackie had from a guy she had met. Rose stayed by the doctor's side, not moving except to take care of some natural processes. She held his large warm hand, and watched him, worried. She trusted him, and she told him he would be fine later, but she couldn't help but worry that this was one of the rare moments he was wrong, or more likely, lying to her.

"Rose," Mickey said from behind her. Rose turned and smiled before turning back to the doctor with a frown, "Would you like to go shopping with me? For Christmas?" Rose shook her head quickly, not saying a word. "C'mon, Rose. It's going to do no good being worried just sitting there. Maybe it could take your mind off of him, for now."

"I'm fine," Rose replied quietly. Mickey sighed, walking from the door and sat next to her.

"I know you're worried, Rose. But, it's not like he'll get better faster with you here by him," Mickey said, and Rose was about to protest, but Mickey quickly continued, stopping her in her tracks, "I know. You and him, you two have something special. Something you and I might have had at one point, but not anymore. Maybe while we're out, you could get him something. Have a little fun. Your doctor would probably like it more if you had fun instead of worry to death." Rose bit her lip and stared at the doctor's unconscious face, as he wore the robe, sleeping on her bed. She had dreamt of him and her on the same bed (occasionally with Mickey too, but those didn't happen as often now), but not like this. Him completely helpless. She never thought she would ever see him like this. She sighed and looked towards Mickey.

"All right," Rose said, and smiled weakly.

"That's the spirit," Mickey said happily placing his arm around her shoulder, and the two rose from her bed, and headed towards the door. Rose looked back for a moment, before she made her way out of the room for the first time since the doctor and she had arrived. It was a couple of hours that the two were out, shopping. Rose had picked up a thin leather man's necklace for the doctor to have his TARDIS key on, instead of the old simple thing he had worn before. She had also picked up a shirt for her mum, and a stuffed Christmas Tree that said 'Merry Christmas' across it with arms and legs for Mickey. She couldn't seem to hide anything else from him while she bought him a present, without him knowing. He had insisted on no presents, but she wanted to give him one anyways. The two were walking down the street and laughing at a joke Mickey had just told about a time with his fellow workers, when Rose spotted the Santa Band playing a little ways away.

"Let's go this way," Rose said tugging him from the direction of the Santa Band, just in case.

"Is there something wrong?" Mickey asked looking at the Santa Band and raising an eyebrow, "If I knew that you were afraid of mechanical Santas…" He chuckled. Rose was looking at the band with suspicion.

"No, it's not that, it's… something about them," Rose said, "Something that doesn't seem right." At that moment, the band turned their instruments on the two. Rose pulled Mickey to the side, barely dodging the shot from the tuba. The two hid behind a stand as the people ran, trying to keep away.

"What do they want?" Mickey asked confused.

"They don't want us. Think. What is the only valuable thing we really have? The doctor," Rose explained quickly, as she guided Mickey behind stands and away from the Santa Band, "He's in trouble. We've got to get home." The two managed to lose the slow Santas and hurry back to the apartment, where Rose burst through the door, and into the living room, and looked around.

"Is something wrong?" Jackie asked, walking in from the kitchen, "I have dinner almost done, you'll have to wait a little bit longer for it."

"Mum," Rose said looking at a Christmas tree in the corner of the living room which wasn't there when they had left, "Where'd you get that?" Rose stared at the Christmas tree, getting the same feeling as she did when she saw the Santa Band.

"It was just left at the door. I assumed it was from you since you were out about shopping," Jackie replied in her wispy almost dream-like tone.

"We didn't get a Christmas tree," Rose said, and Mickey came in from the kitchen, having nicked a dinner roll, eating it.

"Well, I suppose someone else just gave it as a present," Jackie replied, not knowing why Rose seemed so concerned at the moment. There was silence for a moment, but then the tree began moving, the branches slowly began twirling around the center of the tree, towards them. Rose and Jackie both backed away, Jackie screaming in fright. Mickey grabbed a chair to try to hold them off, and the two women backed towards the door. Rose hurried to the doctor, and Jackie followed.

"We need to get out of here," Jackie said urgently.

"We can't just leave him," Rose replied strongly. Mickey's chair was now nearly destroyed and he followed them into the room, where they barricaded the door. However, it was not going to hold. Rose took the sonic screwdriver from the night stand and placed it in the doctor's hand. The tree broke in at that moment.

"Help me," Rose whispered in the doctor's ear. Immediately the doctor sprung up to a sitting position and pointing the screwdriver at the tree, stopping the spinning advancement. The doctor hurried out of the room without a word, and out into the path between the other apartments on their floor. Rose and the others followed. He pointed his screwdriver at the Santa Band that was below him, which lacked their instruments. Suppose they would just be Santas then. The Santas took the warning and teleported away. The doctor turned towards the three and smiled, before he collapsed on the ground. Rose hurried to go and hold him up as best as she could.

"My head… I need…" the doctor began.

"What do you need?" Jackie interrupted.

"I need…" the doctor began again.

"Aspirin, painkillers, tea!" Jackie interrupted again.

"You to shut up," the doctor finished shaking his head.

"Hasn't changed so much, has he?" Jackie muttered.

"Same old doctor," Rose replied.

"I need to sleep again. You woke me too early," the doctor said grinning from ear to ear at the sound of her voice.

"Sorry, we needed you. You really should teach me how to use that thing," Rose joked pointing to the screwdriver.

"I will; I promise," the doctor said, trying to get up, but unable to do so, and struggling in the attempt, "Something… bigger is coming." He looked at Rose quite seriously, his smile disappearing in a flash. "Also… why am I in a robe?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Thought it would be more comfy. You wear that jacket and jumper all the time," Rose teased with a smile, her tongue near her teeth showing just a bit.

"Oi! What's wrong with the jacket?" the doctor asked, before grunting again, feeling himself slip away, before he breathed out a gold dust from his mouth, "Regeneration Energy. They were attracted by it. Could power a planet for decades." Rose nodded, and the doctor fell asleep once more. Rose sighed and looked at the ground, next to her slumped over doctor.

"He'll be fine," Jackie assured her, as she and Mickey picked up the doctor again, and brought him back to Rose's room. Rose followed them, and resumed her position next to the sleeping doctor.

"Rose, dear," Jackie called from the living room, "Come see what's on the telly." Rose ignored her mother and continued holding the doctor's hand, slowly moving her thumb across the doctor's hand hoping he would wake up again.

"Seriously, Rose," Mickey called, waving his hand towards the room Rose was in. Rose sighed and walked out of the room, keeping her eye on the doctor until she could no longer, before she hurried into the living room. On the scream was a face of some alien looking creature the probe had sent back.

"What?" Rose asked confused.

"I thought the same thing, maybe they're the something bigger the doctor was talking about," Mickey suggested. Rose nodded, sitting in a seat looking at the television set, which was playing the footage of the alien, getting a feeling from the footage, slightly different than the Santas before.

"The TARDIS isn't translating," Rose pointed out not understanding what the alien was saying on the footage, "But it always does. I-it's broken because he is…" She looked back at the room where the doctor was sleeping. Jackie hugged her and they looked back at the television. Those on the television began explaining the footage as a prank from some college kids, but Rose had a feeling that was a lie. After a couple of hours, a report came in about people walking out onto roofs, to which the three acted fairly quickly, and headed to the door seeing people walking like zombies to the roof. The three followed, and watched the people line up on the edge of the roof, as a large space ship was visible overhead. Rose quickly turned around, and sprinted back to the house with the other two in tow.

"We've got to get him to the TARDIS, it's not safe out here, especially if they are after him," Rose said quickly, and began to try to carry the doctor herself, which didn't work. Jackie went and got food as she and Mickey brought the doctor to the TARDIS.

"I'll get more food, we won't know how long we'll be in there," Jackie said before exiting the TARDIS. Mickey poured the two of them tea, and waited a bit. They talked a small bit, the tea container uncapped on the ground, when Rose realized her mother had been gone for a long while.

"Maybe she needs help with the food," Rose suggested, and the two hurried out of the door, knocking the tea over in the process. The two stopped in their tracks when they found themselves surrounded by aliens. Rose hurried to close the TARDIS door.

"Harriet!" Rose said spotting the Prime Minister, in which the Prime Minister responded with a hug.

"Rose! Where have you been? Where's the doctor?" Harriet Jones, Prime Minister, asked looking at her, fairly scared.

"He's not here right now… he's been called elsewhere for the moment," Rose replied biting her lower lip.

"The girl with the blue box will represent her people," the leader alien said, translated by the translator.

"But she can't," Harriet replied, but Rose shook her head.

"I'll speak on behalf of the humans," Rose assured Harriet.

"Dear-" Harriet began, but Rose cut her off.

"Someone has to take his place when he's not here," Rose replied. Harriet backed away and allowed Rose to go forward. "I speak on behalf of the human race. I command you, under the authority of the… Shadow Proclamation, ruled by the mighty Jagrofest, and under the protection of the Gelf… and the… the Daleks too, that you leave this world in peace!" Harriet really hoped it would work, but she didn't seem to be very confident with her delivery, as if she were just placing names of aliens in some sort of order that could make sense. A roar of laughter came from the crowd.

"We do not care about shadows," the leader proclaimed, again translated by the translator, "Nor their proclamations. You are all that this world has to offer? Surrender, or one-third will die." The group looked at each other, and Rose sighed, having failed doing what the doctor was able to do fairly easily, at least it seemed so. "I will first kill the girl. So bold in her attempt. But she will die, as an example," the leader continued, but this time, his words seemed to be English as he spoke, confusing the group.

"You're speaking English," Rose pointed out.

"I would never poison my tongue with such a primitive language," the leader proclaimed in disgust.

"But that's English, no doubt," Rose said, "Which means, that if you're not speaking it…" She looked towards the TARDIS, "The TARDIS is translating… which means…" As she trailed off, everyone was looking back at the TARDIS as a man came bounding out of it, with a smile on his face.

"Fantastic! I never thought I'd see the day when the humans come out of their world and meet their first true aliens, that they know about," the doctor said joyfully, "Well, maybe eventually, just not with this face." He spotted Harriet and smiled, "Prime Minister, now? Good job. Britain's golden age, as they always say." The doctor turned to Rose and smiled from ear to ear. "I never thought I'd say it, but your mum was right, all I need was some tea. Into the TARDIS, and cleared up my passages really nicely."

"Doctor…" Rose said watching his eyes, he returning the gaze happily.

"Who are you?" the leader commanded. The doctor looked away from Rose and crossed his arms.

"I could ask you the same thing," the doctor replied, his smile faded.

"We are the Sycorax!" the leader yelled out in frustration, "Who are you?"

"The doctor, pleasure to meet you," the doctor said.

"You will be champion of these cattle, then," the leader commander.

"Fine with me," the doctor said, bounding up the stairs behind the leader seeing a console, "If I'm not mistaken…" the doctor leaned down and opened the panel, placing his finger on a pool of blood, "Blood control. No wonder I haven't met you before. Out of all the aliens in the universe, you are the only ones I have yet to meet. Oh, sure, stories are told, but you lot never do anything important. This is why. Blood control. Haven't seen that since… centuries ago, really. And you know what the best thing about blood control is?" There was silence. He raised his hand to a big red button.

"No!" Harriet, Rose and everyone yelled at once. The doctor smiled, before he pushed the button.

"Can't kill anyone," the doctor said, his smile returning, "You see, blood control can't go against the natural instincts, can't make someone die. They're all free now."

"Blood control was only one of our ways of conquering," the leader asserted.

"I'm sure," the doctor shrugged, "However, I won't let you take this world."

"And what will you do to stop us?" the leader asked.

"I challenge you to a duel," the doctor replied pulling a sword from a nearby alien and pointing it at the leader, "Normal intergalactic rules of dueling. If I win, you leave. If I lose, you get this planet."

"Agreed," the leader said. Rose hurried to the doctor's side.

"Are you sure?" Rose asked.

"Only way to speak the warrior language, through dueling. This regeneration is fairly good at it, at least in videogames," the doctor replied with a nod.

"You don't know if you can in real life?" Rose asked, eyes wide.

"Nope," the doctor replied before smiling, and running towards the leader, whose sword was pulled, attacking him. The two exchanged blows, pushing each other until they were outside, near the edge of the rock-like ship. The doctor was near the edge, and the leader smiled, pushing the doctor, to where he fell onto the ground, near the edge. The doctor smiled before rolling away and holding his sword to block the next blow to come. He stood up once more, and hit the leader in the stomach with the hilt of the sword, before holding the leader at the edge of the ship at the point of his sword.

"I win," the doctor said, "Swear upon your gods that you will leave this world alone." The leader looked at the doctor and grunted.

"I swear," the leader replied. The doctor dropped the sword to his side and turned towards Rose who had followed the fight with the other humans outside. The two ran towards each other and embraced each other in a hug for a moment, before they held hands and made their way towards the TARDIS, which was indoors. However, the leader began running forward towards the doctor. He sighed, before letting go of Rose's hand, turning around, stabbing the leader in the cut in one fluid motion, dropping the sword as well.

"Won't kill him," the doctor said, "It'll make him hurt for several weeks."

"You could've died," Rose noted, as the two walked towards the TARDIS the other humans following.

"How long have you known me? Have I ever once died on you?" the doctor asked.

"I thought you did, not long ago," Rose said quietly.

"Don't worry about that," the doctor replied, "I'm here, and I'll explain that to you later, promise. Cross my hearts." He was smiling widely again, in the robe he had been wearing. "I want my jacket back."

"Of course. You look better with the jacket anyways," Rose commented. They were at the main hall where the blue box was, and the doctor looked around at the many Sycorax and scowled at them.

"You go, you run back to your home. You go back to the stars. But when you do, spread the word; if they hear of this world's riches, it's resources, the wealth of the planet, tell them this. Stay away. If they try to harm this world, I will stop them. This world is protected. It will not fall," The doctor announced loudly to the group. At that moment the Sycorax transporter lowered them down back to Earth, now they were by the TARDIS and the doctor made his speech.

"We're back," Rose stated, "You did it." She hugged the doctor, letting go of his hand to do so, and smiled. The two celebrated, along with Mickey, while Harriet and the translator were off to the side.

"Earth owes you a great debt," Harriet said, the ship retreating from the skies. However, green beams came from around London, connecting, heading straight for the ship. The doctor's face grew grim, he and Rose broke their embrace.

"Do you know what you have done, you stupid ape?" the doctor asked, his attitude quite furious.

"I am protecting our world. One day, you won't be there for us. We need to show them that we can take care of ourselves, not depend on another alien to protect us," Harriet explained.

"You killed all of them! There were innocent people aboard who didn't do anything against you, it was the government, not everyone on the ship!" the doctor growled.

"That depends on what your definition of people is, Doctor," Harriet replied. The doctor crossed his arms and stared at her furiously.

"Britain's Golden Age, yeah. Where you kill everything that isn't human, that is different. That is genocide. You just committed mass murder," the doctor said.

"I did it for my people," Harriet asserted.

"It will be the last thing you do, I'm sure. I can bring you down with a single word," the doctor warned.

"You may be powerful, but even I doubt you could do that," Harriet replied disbelievingly.

"No… you're right… just six," the doctor said, reconsidering his word choice. He walked over to her assistant and whispered into his ear. "Don't you think she looks tired?" With that he walked away, leaving Harriet and her assistant behind, placing an arm around Rose's shoulders as they walked away.

It was later; the doctor was by the TARDIS, and Rose, Mickey and Jackie were by him. He stood by the door, leaning against the other side of the front, his jacket and normal attire back on, smiling at Rose.

"'Course I'm coming," Rose said.

"Don't want to stay with your family?" the doctor said, giving her a chance to stay behind.

"I'll be back for them, eventually. Visits, phone calls, but I want to stay with you, Doctor," Rose replied fairly certain.

"Rose," Jackie said, "Please come back soon."

"I will, Mum," Rose promised, "Take care of her while I'm gone; will you, Mickey? I know, we're… really not together anymore, but I want her to be take care of… please?"

"Of course I will," Mickey replied with a small smile, hugging Rose for a moment, "What are mates for?"

"Thank you," Rose said with a huge smile, before turning towards the doctor, "Barcelona, then?"

"If that is what you want." The doctor said with a nod, heading into the TARDIS.

"Sounds good," Rose said, and entered the TARDIS, waving at her mum and Mickey before closing the door behind the two of them. "First thing's first. What happened to you?"

"I regenerated. I explained that to you before it happened," the doctor said, pressing a few buttons and fiddling with the panel.

"You said you'd be different, though," Rose urged.

"I thought I would. But you stopped it, Rose," the doctor said, stopping his work and looked towards Rose, "You looked into the heart of the TARDIS. You were granted powers, but I sucked up the power from you."

"I… I do remember being here and trying to do that," Rose said, not remembering the event clearly, "And seeing you back on the Game Station, and the Daleks going away. But… what does that have to do with you… regenerating?"

"It's like drinking a glass of water, there are still drops of it left," the doctor explained, sighing a bit, "I wasn't able to rid you completely of that power. It would've killed you if I hadn't, and now some little droplets remain… When I was regenerating… I think… I'm not sure, but I believe that you summoned these traces, and stopped me from changing. I regenerated into the same person I was before." Rose looked at him curiously.

"So, I had this power you took away, but some still remains, and I kept you the same? Has it ever happened before?" Rose asked.

"I don't think a human ever took in the Time Vortex before, so no," the doctor replied with a grin, "Let's get going, no time to dwell on that anyways, we have the universe to explore."

"Ok, let's go," Rose agreed with a nod.

"To Barcelona, the planet with dogs with no noses, we go," the doctor said flipping a switch starting the TARDIS engine.


	2. New Earth

**Sorry it took so long. Here's the next chapter. I really hope you like it  
because I hate it. Really, I do hate it very much. It's been awhile since I  
saw the episode, but I think I got everything down. The next chapter  
will be one of my own original stories, which I hope is not bad. **

The doctor leaned against the control panel and smiled at the blonde girl in front of him.

"Now Rose, pull that lever… now!" the doctor instructed, "It will lower us away from the 23rd century, and, then you'll need to stabilize the thrusters with that button, there." He pointed to a flashing green light." She did as she was told, questioningly, worried to mess up and blow the two of them up. The doctor had informed her that he was going to teach her how to drive the TARDIS just a moment after they had left home. Rose had assumed they were going to Barcelona, but the doctor seemed to have other plans. From what she could figure, which wasn't too much, but enough, they weren't going to Barcelona, but a planet dubbed New Earth by the TARDIS screen. Either that, or they were heading towards a planet on the other side of the universe called Statalia, but again, she wasn't the expert. It was what the screen was telling her at least. Maybe the TARDIS had a quirk of not telling them where they actually were going or something.

"Then to park it," the doctor said, "Lower that lever slowly, and hit the area right next to it with the mallet when it's half-way down." Rose nodded, lowering the lever. "Too fast!' She slowed the lowering of the lever, and the doctor cued her to hit the area near it with the mallet. The progression of the middle area for the engine began to slow down, and the doctor did a few things on his end and it stopped. "Not bad for your first time."

"Would've done better if I knew before, so I could read the manual," Rose teased with a huge smile, her tongue pressed against her teeth.

"Am I not a good enough teacher?" the doctor said crossing his arms and smirking at her.

"Don't tell me there isn't one," Rose replied looking at the doctor disbelievingly.

"Of course there is," the doctor answered.

"Then where is it?" Rose asked.

"In a supernova," the doctor admitted, his smile growing on his face.

"Why's it there?" Rose wondered, her eyebrows raised.

"Didn't agree with it," the doctor answered simply, his grin covering his face now.

"So you through it into a supernova?" Rose asked with a wide grin on her face as well, with a small giggle of how funny it would be see the doctor throwing a book at a supernova just because it made him angry.

"C'mon, let's see where we are," the doctor said bounding towards the door. Rose laughed and followed him out of the door, happily. The doctor stopped at the door, and offered his hand, which she took.

"Barcelona?" Rose asked with a smile, not recognizing the view before her. There were tall silver buildings, one with a symbol on the side, the two of them currently standing on some plains nearby. It almost reminded her of Earth.

"Nope. I would guess, about… five billion and twenty-three years into the future, in… New New York," the doctor said looking around with a smile, before looking back at Rose, wanting to see her impressed.

"You're kidding. They really named a place New New York?" Rose said disbelievingly.

"It's actually the fifteenth New York, but they shortened it from New New New New New New New New New New New New New New… New York. Much easier to say," the doctor answered with a smile, before hurrying away from the TARDIS with Rose following next to him. He stopped, and signaled for the two of them to sit, and they did. He held himself up with his hands behind him looking at the city.

"See that building?" the doctor said pointing to the tall building in the center, "That's where Congress and Parliament convene."

"Congress and Parliament?" Rose asked.

"Oh yes, it's fantastic. You see, when you humans went out to the stars, the United States and Britain united to form the United States of Britain, soon France and Portugal and Germany joined, and eventually… after a war, everyone became part of the country. The United States and Britain lead the way for the first Great and Bountiful Human Empire, combining their governments, and when Earth was destroyed, humans came here. Resettled on New Earth, taking the government of the first government that united Old Earth's people. It was a great government too, though classes came again here, unfortunately," the doctor explained with a smile, loving teaching Rose new things. To share his adventure with her, who tended to understand things fast enough, but not too fast to take the fun out of everything.

"The United States and Britain… leading the Earth to the stars," Rose said, imagining how things could have gone that way, though thinking that it would have been an unlikely thing to her in her time, though sharing close ties to the States.

"It was a fantastic time. I actually was on the first deep space mission; turned out aliens were going to try to stop their advance, but I managed to stop them. Sally Brooks was a very nice and dedicated person," the doctor explained, remembering a time that was never told, on one of his lone journeys, before he had the face he currently had.

"Sally Brooks?" Rose asked a bit of jealousy seeping into her question.

"Long story. I couldn't let her die. I knew what her journey held for the human race, and she had a fiancé to get back to," the doctor explained.

"When could you let good people die like that?" Rose said without thinking, seeing the face he made, his smile faded, turning into his sulking mood. "I didn't mean… I'm sorry. I should have thought…"

"It's fine. Sometimes it's hard to forget that I am a man who killed millions in a single second," the doctor said, staring at the city.

"You aren't the same man, Doctor. You've changed," Rose said looking at the doctor worried a bit, and feeling sorry about what he had to do.

"No, I haven't. I would kill all of them again, if I had to," the doctor replied looking at her, his face straight, and very serious.

"Doctor…" Rose said, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, let's go!" The doctor said wiping his straight face away and grinning, hopping up. He pointed towards the building with the symbol on the side. "The hospital."

"I take it we're not here on accident?" Rose asked with a chuckle, knowing the doctor was simply covering up the hurt he was feeling about remembering the war, as he always did. Rose found it best to drop the subject, especially at times like this. She didn't want to upset him, but she planned on talking with him about it later, but not pressing the issue too far. She wanted to know more about him.

"I got a message a little before we left," the doctor answered pulling his psychic paper out revealing a message saying to meet someone in Ward 26. He put up the paper. "I'll get you to Barcelona eventually. Couldn't risk the trail going cold before we got here."

"It's really fine; I love surprises," Rose replied with a smile, taking the doctor's hand and pulling him towards the hospital. The doctor grinned from ear to ear, following her. The two arrived at the hospital not too long afterwards, walking into the front office and towards the lifts. The doctor entered one, but it closed before Rose could enter.

"Take the other one," the doctor said through the closed door, "Remember Ward 26. Ward 26! Beware of the disinfectant!"

"Of what?" Rose said back, as the doctor headed up. However, she didn't hear anything else. She walked over to the other lift and pressed the button for Ward 26. The two were sprayed with disinfectant around the same time. The doctor seemed, to grimace at the water getting on his jacket.

"It better not shrink because of you," he muttered to himself as the disinfecting process was going. Rose was utterly shocked when she was sprayed with various liquids. Her hair was all wet and her clothes were dripping wet. She did not feel very good about getting wet. The doctor arrived out of the elevator and walked towards the ward, expecting Rose to be right behind him. He walked through the bright white walls, and found himself surrounded by sick people, as one would usually find in a hospital. There were quite a few with diseases that would kill them. A pity really, that so many were going to die soon because of these diseases and he couldn't do anything.

"Welcome," a cat nurse said approaching the doctor who was simply strolling through the ward, "Who are you visiting?"

"I don't know yet. I'll know when I see who ever it is," the doctor replied, looking around before spotting the Face of Boe. "Found him." The doctor strutted off towards the Face of Boe and smiled looking at the big face in a jar, of origins not even he knew. "What's wrong with him?" the doctor asked the nurse by her.

"He's dying of the only thing we cannot cure, old age," the nurse replied with a bow of her head, "They say he's lived for billions of years; is that true?"

"I don't know. That is what the stories say, but I don't think it's possible," the doctor replied looking from the nurse to the large head in a tank. He bent his legs so he was still on his feet, but much lower than before, looking at the face. "What did you want to say to me?" the doctor asked, but the head said nothing.

"There are rumors that when he's about to die… no, I'm sure you don't want to hear, they're just legends," the nurse said abruptly before stopping herself.

"How do you know they aren't actually true?" the doctor asked, grinning widely, though not quite ear to ear.

"They're just stories. It's not really real," the nurse replied.

"What if they are?" the doctor inquired.

"Well… they say that when the Face of Boe is about to die, he will impart his secret to a lonely wanderer without a home," the nurse explained. The doctor looked at the nurse before yanking his head towards the head. "It's just legend, though."

"Boe…" the doctor said looking at the giant head, thinking the legends meant him, that the Face of Boe, the oldest creature in the galaxy would impart a secret to him. After a few moments of silence of watching the face silently sit there, the doctor wondering what the Face wanted to tell him, when he realized there wasn't a hand on his shoulder, or a human body next to him.

"Where's Rose?" the doctor asked, getting up and walking towards the lift, before spotting one of the patients from before, and stopping in his tracks. "How did he get cured?" the doctor asked curiously at a nurse nearby, "The cure for Petrifold Regression isn't found for years!"

"We have the cure to all things, but old age," the nun cat replied.

"What's in the bags?" the doctor pointed out, approaching the cured Duke, and observing brightly colored liquid in a drip bag.

"The cure to all. Visiting hours are almost over, you should leave," the cat nun said, quite obviously lying about the visiting hours.

"It's mid-day," the doctor replied raising an eyebrow, and the cat nun stared at him. He gave a strained smile and began walking away. He pulled out a cell phone from his jacket, and was just about to call her cell, when she came prancing through the lift doors towards him. He raised an eyebrow at the way she was carrying herself, which was much different than she had just moments prior.

"Where have you been, Rose?" the doctor asked a bit frustrated with her going and disappearing on him, mostly worried about where she could have been.

"Just around," Rose replied, and the doctor raised an eyebrow. At that moment Rose pulled the lapels of his jacket, and pulled him down onto her lips. The embrace held for a few seconds; the doctor tried to make himself pull away, but wasn't able to work up the ability to do so. He chanted the words 'She isn't herself' in his head over and over for those couple of seconds, but even with that, he couldn't get himself to pull away. Finally, Rose pulled back with a sigh and walked off. The doctor blinked a couple of times, stunned, before he followed her.

"Those cats are up to something," the doctor said watching her his eyes studying her as they walked into a room with a control panel on the wall.

"I know," Rose replied, "Just a matter of finding the right information." The doctor stared at her, and she gestured him to go to the panel.

"What's wrong with you?" the doctor asked watching her.

"Nothing, I'm happy, I'm good," Rose replied, "Nothing is wrong at all. Just another adventure with you, Doctor." The doctor continued to stare at her, before he went to the panel and began running over it with his sonic screwdriver.

"Locked," the doctor sighed.

"Just reroute it," Rose said as if it were obvious, "Bypass the security protocols."

"Oh, right," the doctor said shaking his head as if he had just acted stupid for a moment. He went through the safeties put up with his screwdriver, as a door opened behind them, hidden in the wall. "Look at that," the doctor said pointing towards the new opening, biting his lower lip to keep his cool, knowing something was wrong with Rose right now, his fist clenched at his side.

"Whatever they are doing, will be in here, I'm sure," Rose said, brushing past the doctor. The doctor breathed out, before following her. However, before they made it very far, the doctor pushed Rose to the side and looked at her seriously, breaking his resolve to pretend he was buying the scheme.

"What is wrong with you?" the doctor asked once more.

"I already told you I am just fine, Doctor," Rose replied, but the doctor shook his head.

"You're not Rose," the doctor said shaking his head, "Who are you?"

"Doctor, we're in the middle of an underground secret tunnel in a hospital that is curing people that shouldn't be alive anymore, and you are questioning whether I am the person you see before you or not?" Rose asked.

"Yes. Rose is more important than anything else," the doctor replied his expression quite cross with whoever was in front of him, "She would not know what to do with that computer back there. And she wouldn't kiss me like you did back there."

"She's wanted to," Rose muttered, and the doctor rose an eyebrow.

"What?" the doctor questioned.

"Fine. You've caught me. Won't do you any help," Rose scoffed pushing past the doctor, who then grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Who are you?" the doctor said stronger.

"I am the last human," Rose said looking at the doctor with a disappointed look, obviously hoping to keep the act up and fool the doctor for a little while more.

"Cassandra," the doctor stated immediately, "You're dead. I killed you. I "

"We can go on like this all day, but we're not getting any closer to finding out what they are doing here," Rose, or Cassandra replied shaking her head, struggling to get out of the doctor's grip.

"What did you do?" the doctor demanded.

"I used a psychograft and-" she began, but the doctor cut her off.

"Those are banned on every civilized planet!" the doctor said furiously. However, at that moment, he felt a cloth placed over his mouth, and he fainted. Even with his superior biology he did fall victim to some things such as whatever the drug on the cloth was. Only if he had even better biology, then he could have stopped him from fainting.

The next he knew he was in a green oval looking container, waking up. He could see Rose's body through the semi-see-through glass, talking with a cat nun, whom began to bear her claws. Completely unaware of the situation, the doctor began hitting the cover of the area he was in, trying to get out. However, at that moment, the door opened, and the doctor fell out.

"What is going on?" the doctor asked looking around, seeing several chambers covered with the same green glass, and people coming from the pods. His eyes widened.

"You didn't…?" the doctor asked disbelievingly, but Cassandra smirked.

"I offered them to pay me, but they refused, so they get to die. Lucky for you, because if you were in there for a couple more minute you would be hit with every disease in the world," the words coming from Rose's mouth was like poison to the doctor's ears. It was so far from Rose, he could hardly believe she was in her body.

"Do you know what you have done?" the doctor questioned, "They… those people… they have every disease in the world, one touch and you're dead!"

"Well, you better start running, shouldn't you?" Cassandra said, a grey alien by her side, and the three glanced around seeing their means of escaping closing quickly.

"I want that body safe, Cassandra," the doctor spat, before he began going down the stairs, which none of the sick people were at, the only path really at this point. "They were using them as guinea pigs… that's… just not right."

"Hurry up big ears!" Cassandra ordered as the doctor landed on the floor below.

"Oi! My ears are not that big!" the doctor said defensively.

"Just hurry up!" Cassandra demanded. The doctor glared at her as she climbed down.

"Get out of her," the doctor demanded, but there was no response, as she used Rose's eyes to see the damage she caused, as every sick person was escaping from their cells. The three ran along the only open path which eventually led to where Cassandra and Chip had been living. However, on the way, Chip had gotten trapped with the sick people. The two had to leave him.

"Hurry, come on," Cassandra ordered, indicating the stairs beyond the place her skin had used to belong.

"I don't take orders from you, Cassandra," the doctor spat, before he took her by the arm, "Get out of her… now." He pointed his screwdriver at her, and stood between her and the stairs.

"You are a stubborn one. Fine," Cassandra sighed, before she breathed out and out came pink dust from her lungs towards him, entering him, and Rose finally was free.

"Goodness me. I'm a man," Cassandra in the doctor's body said looking at himself, "So many parts. And hardly used! Ah…. Ah… Two hearts! I'm beating out a samba! Oh, dear, he's pretty lean," she poked her new belly, "Firm… enough. And you…" She looked towards Rose, now recovered, "You've been looking. I saw it, you know. And… oh, dear. You two," she laughed, "You two have no idea."

"No idea what?" Rose asked, but the answer was interrupted by the knocking of the sick people.

"Come on," Cassandra said, "We have to get out of here." She, in the doctor's body, hurried over, tucking the screwdriver he had threatened her with into his pocket before climbing up the ladder behind where her skin had been. Rose followed her up the ladder.

"You know, you two really are stupid," Cassandra commented as they climbed.

"Shut up, Cassandra," Rose spat, "Get out of him."

"Not you too," Cassandra replied rolling her eyes, then reaching the top, "It's locked!"

"The sonic screwdriver!" Rose said, and Cassandra pulled out the weapon the doctor threatened her with.

"You mean this?" Cassandra said holding it aloft, looking like she was about to drop it, "How do I work it?"

"I dunno! We need the doctor, get out of him. Hurry!" Rose said looking down seeing the sick people gaining on them.

"Fine," Cassandra sighed, "Hold on tight." She breathed out and made the transfer once more. However, the doctor did not respond very well.

"Get out of her," he growled pointing his screwdriver at her, "Now."

"Just get us out of here," Cassandra ordered, the sick people getting fairly close now.

"Not with you in her," the doctor growled once more.

"I can't believe I'm doing this…" She made the transfer once more, but this time she was transferred into one of the sick people, climbing towards the two. The doctor used his screwdriver, and hurried through, Rose following. He hugged her, just as Cassandra came and possessed her once more.

"I said get out of her. And stay out," the doctor ordered letting go of Rose's body as soon as Cassandra had gained control once more.

"They… they've never been held," Cassandra said looking at the doctor, "Those people have never been held. So lonely… I saw into her mind."

"Cassandra, I understand, I'm going to fix it. Once you get out of Rose's body," the doctor said, starting off softly and nicely, turning quite hard and angry on the last part.

"Calm down, big ears," Cassandra sighed in frustration, "Let's deal with the bigger problem here."

"Nothing is bigger than Rose," the doctor replied watching her with such hatred and pointing his screwdriver at her.

"That won't hurt me," Cassandra scoffed, "You need her body safe. If we don't stop this infection, she'll die with me."

"Fine. The instant I solve this, you will get out of her. Am I clear?" the doctor said moving closer to her, and saying it into her face.

"Crystal, Doctor," Cassandra replied in a similar manner.

"Good. Now let's get going," the doctor said, turning and then seeing an army of the sick coming towards them. He grabbed her hand, even though it wasn't Rose, it still felt like her hand, and began running. They soon came to the wards, where the other sick people were being treated, though not the ones that would kill if one was touched, where a lady stood.

"If I can just break quarantine, then the police can get in," the lady said.

"Under no circumstances will you break quarantine," the doctor said, still holding Rose's hand, "One of the sick get out, and the whole world dies. You understand?"

"I am not going to die here!" the lady proclaimed.

"You won't, if you do what I say. Don't break quarantine. Stay as far from those sick as you can. And help me get the bags," the doctor ordered, "You too, Cassandra." The lady nodded, as did Cassandra, the doctor letting go of her hand, and began taking as many of the brightly colored bags.

"What are these?" Cassandra asked, gathering as many as she could, giving them to the doctor, who strapped them onto a make-shift vest to hold the bags of brightly colored liquids.

"The cure to everything," the doctor replied, "That's enough." Just as he said that, several sick people began to come towards them through a wall. "Run." He ordered it, and the three did so. The lady who was going to break quarantine broke off of them, and the two continued on. However, within minutes they were trapped with sick people coming in on either side of them. The doctor pulled a device out of his jacket, which then expanded. He opened the nearby elevator door and placed the device, silver in color, and circular in the middle with two set of handles. He placed it on the wire, locking on, and grabbing hold.

"Cassandra!" the doctor ordered, "Get on, now!"

"Are you crazy?" Cassandra asked.

"Yes. Get on, now! I need that body safe," the doctor said, reminding her he would not let her die, as Rose was very important to him.

"Fine," Cassandra said, taking a leap, grabbing onto the contraption, which the doctor then closed the doors, and pulled a lever. The two began falling at a fast rate, soon slowing down and stopping.

"I can see why she likes you, you're quite dangerous," Cassandra commented straightening Rose's hair out. The doctor began squirting the liquid into the basin, not worrying with talking with the trampoline about anything, not even listening to her.

"Hold this lever down until I say so," the doctor ordered.

"Why?" Cassandra asked.

"Just do it!" the doctor said, his voice slightly raised in both frustration and anger towards the one taking control of Rose.

"If it will help those people, I will," Cassandra replied, holding down the lever.

"Since when did you care?" the doctor asked confused opening the roof of the elevator.

"Since I saw into their heads. No one deserves that loneliness," Cassandra replied.

"You get used to it," the doctor replied, jumping through the top of the elevator, opening the elevator door. On the other side an army of sick people trying to get through the clear doors stood, seeing him. He waved at them with his smile, and high head. "Hello there." The army slowed came towards him.

"You're making them come?" Cassandra asked incredulously.

"Of course," the doctor replied, and waved them towards him, "Come on, just a bit closer. I know, you're lonely, I can help you." The army made its way towards the elevator, a few coming in, close to the doctor, when he shouted, "Now!" Cassandra let go the lever, and the disinfectant began spraying, both him and the sick people. The blemishes on their faces began disappearing. The doctor grinned ear to ear.

"Go! Spread it! Live! Hug your fellow humans, cure them; spread it," the doctor encouraged. The sick people seemed to understand him, and began to leave and touch the other sick people. The doctor walked out of the elevator examining his work. The sick people slowly began to look normal.

"The cure to everything," Cassandra whispered behind him.

"And they had everything," the doctor finished, his hands behind his back, before he extended his hand, and took Rose's hand in his, despite Cassandra being in her head. "I have unfinished business." The two went up to Ward 22 where the Face of Boe was.

"Boe. You wanted to see me?" the doctor asked, "Is it your time?"

"No, not today. Lonely wanderer without a home. Everyone has their time, and this is not mine. I will see you once more, and there, I shall die. Every song must end," the face replied telepathically. The doctor watched him, and the face teleported.

"Of course. That face can be ever so mysterious," the doctor sighed, turning towards Cassandra, "Now, it's your time. Give Rose back."

"I need a body," Cassandra stated, and just as she said that, the alien Chip came in.

"Chip is here! Chip kept his body safe just for the mistress," Chip said coming up to her. Cassandra looked at the doctor.

"A volunteer," she stated.

"No, absolutely not. He has his own life," the doctor said.

"I live to serve the mistress. It would be an honor," Chip said glaring at the doctor. Cassandra grinned, before she breathed out and the pink dust floated from Rose to Chip.

"Rose," the doctor said, hurrying, and catching Rose from falling. She looked up to see his face right in front of his.

"Doctor," Rose replied, smiling widely. However, the moment was interrupted by Cassandra groaning and nearly falling over.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked.

"I'm… dying," she replied.

"I'm sure we could get you back to the city and find another skin-" the doctor suggested, but Cassandra stopped him.

"No… it's time," Cassandra replied.

"You turned out to be not the worst person," the doctor commented.

"Doctor!" Rose reprimanded him.

"No, I mean it. She's come far from the one who tried to kill all of us for money. She cared about others," the doctor replied.

"All it took was a different perspective," Cassandra said with a weak smile.

"We can do one last thing for you," Rose said.

"Rose…" the doctor warned in a low voice.

"She just saved a whole species," Rose said.

"I did that," the doctor muttered, "You're right. We can do something for her, I suppose."

"You two really care for each other. If my killer can change so much because of you…" Cassandra said, before nearly falling once more, the doctor now holding up her new dying body, "You two belong together, if only for a little while."

"Come on, let's get you into the TARDIS," the doctor said, smiling ever so slightly.

Later, the three had exited the TARDIS in the middle of a room where a party was. Rose nudged Cassandra forward, and she did so. Cassandra approached herself many years in the past before turning into the trampoline, and told herself that she was beautiful, before she died. The doctor watched for a moment, before looking away, pulling Rose back into the TARDIS.

"Where to?" the doctor asked.

"Didn't you promise me Barcelona?" Rose asked with a grin.

"Right you are. Do you wish to continue your lessons?" the doctor asked.

"I'll let you have this one. I need to take a shower," Rose replied with a smile. She began to walk away out of the control room, to leave the doctor to himself, when she turned around.

"Doctor, before I go… Could you tell me about your home planet?" Rose asked.

"What?" the doctor asked, looking at her with almost fear in his eyes.

"I don't even know where you come from. Your planet's name. Could you… tell me a bit about it?" Rose inquired. The room fell silent and the two watched each other. The two studied each other. Rose was not sure if she had pushed a little too far and asked the wrong question at the wrong time.

"Gallifrey," the doctor said.

"What?" Rose asked, her shower now forgotten.

"Gallifrey. That's where I come from," the doctor said as the TARDIS engine stopped, knowing it could be a long talk, "It was a beautiful place. The beautiful orange sky with Glaton flying in the sky, a kind of bird they were. Three feet wide and two tall, they were majestic birds, with green feather and the most beautiful eyes. When the second sun would rise, the light on the mountains would make the most beautiful sight…"


	3. The Fake God - Part 1

**Here's the next chapter, an original of my own. I really hope you  
like it. It's my first attempt at an original adventure of mine.  
And the romance is coming soon, I promise you all, I just needed  
to set everything up. **

**Any other books mentioned I do not own, and belong to their respected owners, as does Doctor Who.**

"Why did you have to make fun of her nose?" Rose called as the doctor and she ran from a large group of dog people dressed in silver armor, throwing javelins at them. One landed fairly close to Rose, which she reacted with a scream, and a jump to the side, accidently hitting the doctor, who caught her, though in mid stride, stopping for a moment, setting her back on her feet and smiling widely with that grin that covered his whole face.

"I did not make fun of the queen's nose; I simply pointed out the things they were missing out on without a nose," the doctor laughed, taking Rose's hand as they ran faster, turning at a corner with Rose.

"Maybe you should have been more careful," Rose suggested with a laugh as the two ran.

"How was I supposed to know she was the queen?" the doctor asked, turning another corner, seeing the blue box not far from them.

"Oh I don't know," Rose said as they stopped by the blue box, the doctor placing the key in the slot, "Maybe by the guards she had around her, or the crown she was wearing on her head." The door opened, and the two rushed in, backs against the now closed door, breathing heavily. The two looked at each other, before they laughed. The doctor soon flew forward towards the console of the TARDIS and turned back towards Rose after flipping a switch.

"Where to?" the doctor asked with his large smile and his hands in his leather jacket.

"Surprise me," Rose answered smiling back, walking up to the console, "As long as you continue your lessons."

"About that…" the doctor said walking up to her seriously, his smile disappearing quickly, "The TARDIS was not happy last time. I don't think she wants you learning." Rose raised an eyebrow.

"I thought the TARDIS loved me," Rose replied confused, however, at that moment the doctor smiled again.

"I'm just kidding, Rose," the doctor said walking close to her.

"Uh huh, that's it," Rose replied with a smile, "It's either that or you like being the only one who knows how to drive this thing." The doctor looked taken aback.

"I would never," the doctor said overdramatically.

"Oh come on, you," Rose said nudging him with her shoulder playfully, "Let's get going." She looked at the console. "This one's the regulator, right?" The doctor looked over her shoulder like a teacher would neither confirming nor denying it. "So much help you are." She chuckled before she looked at the console again. "This one?" The doctor remained watchful, but not answering. She raised an eyebrow before pressing the button, and the engine began working. She hurried over to the screen of the console, the doctor still watching over her.

"Let's see. How about this planet?" Rose asked pointing to the star map.

"Initinigi," the doctor stated, "Interesting choice. I actually have not gone there. According to the archives, they were the leading power in the Eveb Galaxy until the humans came and took over. Nice people, met them before."

"Let's go. So to go there…" Rose said before trailing off and hurrying over to the other side and pulling a lever, the TARDIS rocking as she did. Across the way, the doctor pressed a couple of buttons and a lever without Rose noticing, as Rose shifted around, and hit a few things, once with the hammer due to the machine being ornery about going where she wanted to.

"Then to land!" Rose pushed up a lever slowly and the engines slowly shut down. She looked over at the doctor and smiled with her mouth open and teeth showing. "How'd I do?"

"You didn't kill us," the doctor stated, and Rose crossed her arms, "Good job, Rose. Especially for the first time alone." The doctor walked over to the console and laughed. Rose raised an eyebrow, uncrossing her arms walking over to where he was.

"What?" Rose asked.

"You landed on Checick, not Initinigi," the doctor stated, "Across the whole universe from Initinigi. Checick fell by my time, the whole species just died out. No one knows why, well, I bet a Time Lord may have come to check it out, but I haven't read anything about it otherwise."

"Even better than Initinigi, then," Rose smiled a bit deflated, but happy, "Could've been worse. I could've flown us into a supernova." The doctor laughed.

"Oh that wouldn't be bad, the shields would protect us. That would be interesting to show you, though, Rose. The center of a supernova," the doctor said standing tall, making himself taller by making his head go up, smiling widely.

"Maybe after this trip you can show me," Rose suggested looking at the door, "Let's see what's out there." The doctor smiled, taking her hand, which the two looked at before they ran to the door, pulled it open and the two rushed out. In front of them was nothing. Just a plain full of grass with a slight breeze.

"Fantastic," the doctor said quietly with a more serious look sprouting on his face, but still with a smile. Rose looked around curiously before looking at the doctor curiously.

"Look up," the doctor said without looking up, but pointing with his hand that was not holding her hand. She did so, and above them was a large cloud, but it did not seem to block any of the light out.

"How…?" Rose asked.

"It's a man-made cloud. It is see through, and has taken upon a form we would consider normal," the doctor explained, "Just in case, since the see-through properties aren't quite perfect."

"So, that's a man-made cloud?" Rose asked.

"Exactly," the doctor replied, "Not only that, but it's a city." Rose looked at the doctor incredulously.

"A city? On a cloud?" Rose asked amazed.

"Yes," the doctor replied happily, before letting go of her hand and hurrying forward. "If I'm not mistaken…" He kneeled down and moved the dirt to the side to show a silver metal surface underneath it. "Ruins were found underground, no one knows why. A city in the sky and one underneath." Rose smiled and kneeled next to him.

"Why not any on the surface?" Rose asked curiously looking around.

"Radiation, war, who knows?" the doctor said looking around with amazement.

"You're interested," Rose noted.

"Of course I am," the doctor answered, "Aren't you?"

"I am," Rose confirmed with a huge smile, taking the doctor's hand once more. He looked at her hand as it took ahold of his, before looking at her face and smiling.

"Stop!" a voice from behind commanded, and the two quickly looked back at the same moment and saw a small team of people with guns.

"Already in trouble and you haven't even said anything to them," Rose joked and the doctor shot her a grin before looking at the team. They were human size, with thick hair which were in thick curls, and black leather jackets, much like the doctor's jacket. The guns they were hold were large, and looked quite dangerous.

"Trouble?" the one who commanded them before, the one in front, who appeared the leader, laughed, and the whole team laughed as well, "You are a god, Great Doctor! This must be his companion… Romana? No! It must be Rose. She is with the one who is said to save our world from the barbarians." The doctor raised an eyebrow, and turned his whole body around, letting go of Rose's hand. Rose followed in his steps and turned just as he did to face these people. They all looked almost exactly the same, but there were a couple of unique features that made them look slightly different, such as their eye color. The leader had bright purple eyes that shocked Rose, but looked stunning. Every one of them had slightly different colored eyes, from all around the rainbow, but otherwise looked identical in almost every other aspect.

"What are you talking about?" the doctor asked, surprised, to say the least.

"We did not mean to anger you, Great Doctor," the leader said before turning around frantically and waving his hands towards the ground. The team responded with kneeling on their knee, as did the leader, who looked at the ground, almost like a knight on Earth when the king came by.

"Get up," the doctor insisted, shaking his head, "What do you mean… Great Doctor? I have never been here before."

"You have, Great Doctor, or at least you will," the leader said looking up at the doctor, the rest of the team still looking down, "For you are a Lord of Time. We, of the Cult of Ember, have been praying you would come."

"I don't understand," Rose stated.

"Come with us to the temple, perhaps if you gaze upon the holy books of Ember, you will understand," the leader said with a smile towards Rose, "She was said to be slower than the Great Doctor." Rose's eyes widened at the insult, and the doctor's smile faded completely.

"Don't say that about Rose!" the doctor insisted, "She is much more intelligent than you know."

"I am sorry, Great Doctor," the leader said bowing his head again, "I will not make that mistake again, Great Doctor."

"And stop calling me Great Doctor, it's just the doctor," the doctor said with a sigh.

"We shall remember that, Gr- Doctor," the leader replied, "Shall we take you now to Ember?"

"Sure, lead the way," the doctor said and the whole team stood up eerily in the same way at the same moment and began to walk past the doctor. The leader ushered the two of them into the center of the team which was in the shape of a rectangle around them.

"They are here for your protection, Great… I mean, Doctor," the leader explained as they walked forward in a plain of grass that didn't seem to end any time soon, "The barbarians have mined this whole area, they are your shield."

"I do not need a shield," the doctor insisted, "I won't let-"

"Them die for you. We know. It was foretold that you would say that. However, it was also foretold no one would die on this trip," the leader interrupted with a nod, "It is not far, and we have scouted this path for the last thousand years waiting for you to come."

"A thousand years?" the doctor asked, and looked towards Rose who was quite curious about all of it, but hadn't interjected much yet.

"Yes. Ever since the prophecies were told," the leader explained.

"You waited a thousand years for a prophecy you did not know would be fulfilled to be fulfilled?" Rose asked.

"Salvation takes faith," the leader answered simply, before placing a hand in front of the two to have them stop, "We are here." The doctor smiled as he looked at the ground, while Rose remained confused as to what was happening.

"We're nowhere; there's nothing here," Rose said.

"Teleport," the doctor replied with a smile, "It's simply fantastic. Not this situation, of course, being some savior to these people, which I will straighten out in all due time, but it's all very interesting. According to the findings on the ruins, they were a primitive people without the technology of teleports. But they have one!"

"We destroyed them and wiped every trace of them before our foretold destruction, or at least you theorized so," the leader explained. A light formed around the whole rectangle, and the scene changed from the grassy plains to a dark city, with tall buildings and surrounded by the shiny silver dome they had seen part of on the outside. There were tall buildings and short houses, but in what looked like the center stood a huge building, a triangular pyramid made of TARDIS blue glass.

"Now that's a bit weird," the doctor pointed out.

"It is the last pyramid of the Age of the Gods. We recolored it based on your TARDIS," the leader explained, "There is a team that will be sent to retrieve your TARDIS soon. We will take care of her."

"What is going on?" Rose asked completely lost by now.

"They believe me a god, and this… is The City of Ember?" the doctor looked at the leader for confirmation, who nodded.

"I read that book awhile back, in 2003, I think," Rose noted with a smile.

"Exactly. I do not think it is a coincidence," the doctor said looking around at the town as they walked through the streets with the people from the buildings coming out or looking out at him as he passed. It was getting a little bit annoying.

"The City of Ember is one of the holy books," the leader said, "If you wish, we can show you all of the holy books, including the one that foretells your arrival, and tells of your future."

"I don't care to learn of my future," the doctor said, though curious, he knew the bad consequences that came with knowing his future.

"We are here," the leader said at they reached the entrance to the large glass pyramid. Rose looked at the doctor and the two smiled at each other. The doctor took Rose's hand and the two went through the door to the pyramid.

"If you follow me," the leader said, following them, the team staying outside, "Only those with permission are allowed in."

"I see," the doctor said with a nod. The three headed towards an elevator, and entered it. The leader pressed the top button and they began travelling up.

"What is your name?" Rose asked.

"My name is Ian, after the companion of the doctor," the leader answered.

"Ian?" Rose asked.

"A very old friend," the doctor replied, "Back in my first regeneration."

"Ha-have you noticed as you grow older, the tendency seems to be you looking younger?" Ian asked, before hastily adding, "Sorry… I have been told not to ask it, but I was curious."

"I haven't really noticed it, but I suppose you are correct… Ian," the doctor replied, feeling odd to call him Ian. The elevator stopped and the doors opened. The three stepped out of the elevator and entered a room with a point at the top, which meant they were at the top of the pyramid, where the walls had display boxes on pedestals which looked extremely old, and under the glass of the display box were books.

Rose went around the room and looked at the books, and was quite surprised when she saw most of them as Earth books. The City of Ember, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter (all 11 of them, though Rose thought there would only be 7), Percy Jackson, and various other fictional books, most of which she read or saw the movies of before traveling with the doctor, or a couple she had seen after travelling, convincing the doctor to let her go and watch a movie or two occasionally that weren't out yet in her time, only one of which the doctor accompanied her to.

The doctor was more preoccupied by the far wall, where the largest pedestal was, stairs leading up to it. He felt a small pulling towards the pedestal, and once he walked up the steps and saw the book there, he knew why. He placed a hand on the glass case, before quickly removing it, turning towards Ian, who was at the entrance to the room at the same moment.

"How did it get here?" the doctor asked his eyes wide. Rose looked towards the doctor. His voice never sounded quite as it did now. It was scared. The closest she ever heard him to this scared was with the gas mask zombies, and even now it seemed different. There was not the anger he had towards Jack mixed in.

"It was on the Plains of Asgard," Ian replied, "Chakir the Great Oracle was the one who found it. Pages seem to be missing, however, and some unreadable. Some of it is most likely in Gallifreyan, or at least our scholars have guessed as much."

"It is," the doctor answered, turning back to look at the book. It seemed a normal thin book with a black worn leather cover, and a ribbon hanging out of it. "How did it get here?" Rose walked towards the doctor worried, standing next to him and looking at the book confused.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"My journal," the doctor replied staring at the book, "My mother gave it to me the day I left Gallifrey."

"You have a diary?" Rose asked trying to lighten his mood, a smile on her face. The doctor shot her a look, causing her teasing smile to disappear quickly.

"It is a record of all of my travels. All of my companions. If it fell into the wrong hands…" the doctor explained looking back at the book, "I must take the journal." Ian stepped forward.

"That is forbidden," Ian said bowing his head.

"By whom?" the doctor asked, "It is my property-"

"By you, Doctor," Ian interjected.

"By me? When? I have never-" the doctor began, but was interrupted again by Ian, who looked quite sorry for interrupting him, quivering at the doctor's calm, yet demanding and angry tone.

"In the journal. You commanded us not to do so," Ian said, his voice quivering.

"What?" the doctor asked genuinely confused.

"There is a forbidden passage said to contain information only for the doctor," Ian noted, "No one has gazed upon the passage as your orders instructed, except one… He-he stole the passage and gave it to the barbarians. We have tried for years to retrieve it." Ian fell to his knees. The doctor closed his eyes and breathed heavily, before opening them again and shaking his head.

"Get up," the doctor ordered, Ian standing quickly, "Did you never question what, apparently, I told you to do?"

"We only follow, not always understanding," Ian replied.

"I am not a god!" the doctor nearly yelled frustrated, "You've killed a man for me, and heaven knows what else."

"There is the war," Ian noted.

"The war?" the doctor asked, raising his voice, "You fought a war over me?"

"Yes, Doctor. There are dissenters, two groups of them. The barbarians as the ones who follow the Dark Lord Sauron, and the disbelievers who believe in neither," Ian explained bowing his head.

"Sauron? From the Lord of the Rings?" the doctor said, clenching a fist. Rose saw the doctor getting angry, and decided to take his hand. The doctor did not seem to acknowledge her doing so, but did seem to slow his breathing.

"Yes sir. Your chosen one, Frodo, defeated him, but the barbarians believe Sauron was the god, not you, and split a hundred years ago. Ever since invaders from Mordor have threatened us. That is why we have rebuilt Ember from the old days and hid here," Ian explained, "We have protected the egress directions very tightly in an unmovable vault so what happened before will not happen again." The doctor could not help but laugh at that.

"Oh you stupid precious people," the doctor sighed with a small smile appearing on his face, "You see, all of these books in here. They are fiction. They never happened. Well, except for my journal… those things did happen."

"Doctor…" Ian said scrunching his eyebrows, "They are our history. They are what has set the foundation of our society. The Age of the Gods was when Percy Jackson arose, and Harry Potter happened just a few years prior to Percy Jackson. All of these books tell about our history before the Great War."

"The Great War?" the doctor asked curiously.

"Everything was destroyed. All of our history books were destroyed, and then you sent us these books. They are our history which you restored to us," Ian explained.

"This is just… fantastic," the doctor sighed. He looked back at the journal behind the glass case.

"We can launch a mission once more to retrieve the forbidden-" Ian began, however, he was interrupted by a loud blazing buzzer sound. Ian's eyes widened and he hurried towards the two, and pushed them towards the door. "The barbarians have found us. We have to protect you. We will repel them if we listen to your orders."

"Then, what you should do, is let me talk with these barbarians," the doctor ordered, "Death is never the preferable option. They must listen to reason."

"They will not; Sauron has poisoned their minds," Ian insisted.

"You were told to do as I said, and I said to let me speak to them," the doctor demanded.

"As you command, Gre- Doctor," Ian replied with a bow, before showing them out of the room and down the hall past the elevator. The hall was the same blue glass as the outside was made of, with paintings of various people, all looking like Ian, with their eyes a different color, and occasionally a slight shape of the face variation.

"This is the room you instructed to be built. It contains a teleportation system and a communication system that will project your image to the entire city," Ian explained, stopping at a door in the hall.

"That will work just fine," the doctor stated, he looked towards Rose and smiled, "No matter what happens, make sure you are safe." He looked towards Ian. "Don't let her interfere."

"I will," Ian said.

"What are you doing? Don't tell me… you're-" Rose began, but the doctor simply smiled widely for a second, before the smile disappeared and he entered the room. "Don't you dare!" Rose was now shouting, but Ian held him back. "You can't!" The doctor stuck his head out of the room.

"I am. Don't worry, Rose, I will be fine. Trust me," the doctor said.

"I can't let you-" Rose began, Ian holding her back.

"You have no choice, Rose Tyler," the doctor replied with a sigh, "I promise. I will be just fine." The doctor smiled, before he moved forward, and hugged the confined Rose, and turning back entering the room.

"I trust you, Doctor, but…. I don't trust everyone else here," Rose said quietly, relaxing in Ian's grip.

"What is he doing?" Ian asked.

"He's…" Rose said biting her lower lip, "Going to give himself to the barbarians."

"That cannot be right. In the book, it said he would save us from them, and live on to write later passages," Ian replied, "If they get their hands on him, they'll kill him."

"Time isn't linear. He… he can die here, and we might not be able to stop him," Rose said before trying to wrestle against Ian's grip.

"Hello, citizens. I am the doctor," his voice said coming from outside where the recording was being projected, "I ask the invading people to stop their attack in exchange for me." Ian's eyes widened, letting go of Rose.

"I cannot let that happen," Ian said, as he and Rose rushed towards the door, opening it, finding the doctor no longer inside.

"I have already transported myself to coordinates specified on a transmission to your superiors. If you do not call off the attack, I will stop you," the doctor's voice said, "With me, I have my journal, a book regarded as highly valuable to all the people of this world. You may do whatever you please with me and the book, as long as you do not harm the people of Ember. Those of you who have heard my tales know that I can and will stop you. And Rose. Stay safe. Do not pursue me." Rose placed her hands on the console in the room, the only thing which was really in the room, and closed her eyes. Ian ran from the room and into the book room, to confirm the disappearance of the journal. It was still there, but it rose the question of what book the doctor had.

"I'll find you, Doctor," Rose said, tears forming in her eyes, before she stood up straight, and stopped leaning on the console, "I promise you. I won't let you die."

**Sorry about it being a two part story, it was getting fairly long and it still has a great bit of story left to go.**


	4. The Fake God - Part 2

**Happy Mother's Day, and to all those moms out there, here's a present for you.**

**Sorry, it's a three part story now. But I have the third part done. I'll post it in the next few days.  
I hope you all like this chapter, it took me awhile to get it just right.  
**

The doctor opened his eyes quickly, meeting the view of a brick wall a few feet ahead of him. He tried to move, but his body would not respond. He was bound by blue lights on each of his feet and arms, holding him upright, wearing only a pair of trousers, which were not his. That is when the pain hit him. Through the blue bonds, an impulse ripped through his body, inside out, feeling like his body was on fire on the inside. He yelled out in pain, trying to stop himself from doing so, but in vain, his vocal cords working though before he thought they might not as his voice was not responding.

That's when it all came back to him. He had been in this place for a couple of days at least, tortured every second, without even being talked to, nor did he see anyone. He had tried to work out an escape plan, but every time he would come close, they would knock him out and he would forget the plan, but know he had thought of something. How they knew that he had a plan, he did not know. He was completely ignorant of the kind of technology these people had, as the ruins of the planet did not present any evidence of such technology before.

When the pain stopped he ended his yell of pain, panting. He tried to turn his head, now aware of his body around him, and it responded. He looked around, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a young man with curly brown hair and bright lime green eyes, who was smiling wickedly.

"Finally someone comes," the doctor said between his deep breathes, "I've been yelling for someone for a long time." The young man did not respond. "Oh great, so I finally have someone to talk to and he's shy." Silence was all that answered the doctor. The young man moved from behind the doctor to in front of him. The young man indicated his mouth, and shook his head. "I see, so you're a mute. Just my luck. Here I thought I was going to get some answers and they sent in a mute." The young man moved back to his position behind the doctor. "Shy still, I see. So why have I not been talked to? Is it that you're too afraid?" The doctor turned his head back so he could see the young man out of the corner of his eye. "No, that doesn't seem like the warrior type. Then again, you really aren't warriors. Just crusaders for a non-existent god."

The young man stared at the doctor intently, his eyes very bright and studying the doctor. The doctor smiled. "I seem to have peaked your interests, now have I? Either that or you are sure I'm trying to turn you away from your precious Sauron. " The doctor sighed. "I'm no immortal god, or devil. Then again, what I did to my people was unforgivable. But I've been trying to atone for my crimes. It hasn't worked very well. Every time I try to die, I find someone else, or look into her eyes and know that I cannot leave. She needs me. Without me, she would live a boring life and waste every second of it. I guess I like to tell myself that. She's a wonderful girl, and if it weren't for me, she would be living a normal life. Saying she needs me is just my ego talking, I suppose." The young man again walked in front of the doctor. "Thank you, my neck was hurt from having to look over there. Eye contact is always the best form of communication."

The young lime green eyed man looked at him, his head tilted to the side in curiosity. "What? Am I not what you thought I would be?" the doctor asked with a huge smile covering his face, "You see, I'm no devil nor god. I am just a Time Lord. A species of life much like you. Well, we don't look like you. Well, a previous regeneration did have a similar look as you. Well, if you add in more discolored teeth, and the scarf. That would be some major de-ja-vu for me. Don't do that." The lime green eyed young man bit his lip and stared at the doctor, as if he were debating something in his head. The young man slowly approached the doctor, and kneeled down near the blue light holding his right leg to the prison.

"Gref," a voice came out of nowhere, "He's tricking you." The young man stumbled back and fell on his behind, before scrambling to his knees and bowing in the doctor's direction. The doctor turned his head around and saw a man, just like the lime green eyed young man, who had a rounder face and completely white eyes. However, this man was not just like Gref. This man had half of his face covered with scars, and the other half old and wrinkled. He wore a robe that reached the floor with maroon

"You're the leader of these people, I suppose," the doctor said seriously, his grin completely gone now.

"You may call me N," the man said, not moving from his position behind the doctor, "Leave, Gref." The young man nodded and ran from the room. The doctor shot a short smile at N.

"You know this position is very uncomfortable," the doctor stated.

"I will not fall for your trick. Trying to make yourself seem like us. Not like the devil you are," N said, but nonetheless moved in front of the doctor.

"It's worked so far," the doctor replied.

"Not anymore, Doctor," N said crossing his arms, his gold staff in his arms.

"I see," the doctor said looking at the scarred face of N, "I am not the devil."

"I know," N replied.

"You do? I was under the impression-" the doctor replied surprised.

"You were under the wrong impression. My followers pose as worshipers of Sauron, when in reality we worship the true God. Not you. Not Sauron. Not anything in those books," N said cutting the doctor off, "But you are _a_ devil." The doctor watched N and his face looked quite serious, almost fearful.

"Let me leave," the doctor requested.

"No, you deserve punishment. You killed all of your people. You made yourself a false god on this planet. You deserve more than death," N replied seriously.

"I- Then I accept your judgment," the doctor answered, "Because I have not been able to punish myself enough. Just stop the killing."

"You will not get anything you request," N stated.

"Then kill everyone," the doctor said, closing his eyes, "If you won't fulfill my requests, then kill every moment you can."

"Clever, you are, Doctor. But not clever enough," N replied with a chuckle, "Look at me." The doctor opened his eyes and looked at N in the face. "I understand why you killed your people. Your journal may be damaged, especially regarding that, but I have been able to glean the reason. What I do not understand is why you sent the book to this place. What is so special about her?"

"About whom?" the doctor asked.

"You don't know?" N retaliated quickly, "Don't tell me they lost them? Oh, they will hear about this."

"They said you lot took the forbidden pages," the doctor replied.

"We did. But they stole them back. It seems they lied to me. They must have taken them," N said talking mostly to himself.

"What did they say?" the doctor asked.

"You'll find out in due time, Doctor," N replied, "But now-" N stopped mid-sentence, as a blinking light went off behind the doctor. "It seems your rescue party is finally here. Would you like to see the massacre?" The doctor's eyes widened.

"I told her not to-" the doctor began, but N raised a hand and quieted him.

"You knew she would not follow those orders," N laughed, walking behind the doctor, placing his hand on a pedestal as a projection appeared on the blank brick in front of the doctor. Rose was there, with five others, different eye colors each, guns in hand, running through some halls in the building.

"They're getting fairly close," N commented, "Just a few more minutes and they'll be here, if they don't die in the process." N chuckled behind him. The doctor watched the projection.

"Rose…" the doctor muttered. Rose and the whole team of people were running down a hall. They stopped, on Rose's order, as she peered around a corner. Really, she did look a bit pale, but otherwise normal. She gave the team the signal that it was all clear, and they ran again. However, green gas erupted; Rose stopped mid-stride, and fell against the wall. A team member tried to help, but one by one they dropped. Rose was on the floor, and slowly tried to claw her way forward.

"Doctor," Rose said, but there was no sound, so he could only see her mouth it.

"No," the doctor murmured, watching the projection, not daring to even allow the thought of it being real to enter his mind. N laughed, as he zoomed in the camera to Rose's defenseless face.

"Look at that. Trexican toxic gas, fresh from the last Trexican flower on this world," N said, "Kills every living thing in just a few moments. Surprising that she survived long enough to even try to call. Usually, its victims are paralyzed. It seems she was much stronger than most people." The doctor's face went angry, as he yanked his head to the side to glare at N.

"I don't believe it. She's still alive; you're lying to me," the doctor growled.

"Why would I lie? To get you angry and make it so you will try your hardest to get out of here and strangle me? That is such a clever plan," N replied with a huge grin on his face, seeing the doctor's reaction, "Then again, your ultimate punishment would be to kill the person who matters the most to you. The only better thing would be if I could kill her right here. Maybe I should have her body taken here. In fact, I think I will do that." N walked over to another console, placing his hand on it. "Bring the blonde's body down to the dungeons."

"Will do," a voice responded.

"No, don't," the doctor requested quietly.

"What? I can't hear you," N said with a devil's grin on his face.

"Don't bring her body here," the doctor said.

"Why not? You won't believe me otherwise," N answered.

"Exactly," the doctor muttered.

"What?" N teased.

"I DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE YOU," the doctor shouted, breathing heavily again.

"Finally, an effective punishment," N laughed.

"Punish me, not anyone else," the doctor said, his voice lowering, almost to a beg.

"Oh but we are freeing her from life," N said swooping around to the doctor's face (the doctor responded with a very intense glare), before grinning, "Look at who's here." N backed away and motioned to his side, "Place her by the doctor."

"Aye sir," the voice from the intercom replied, a young woman walking in the doctor's view holding a body with a familiar head of blonde hair. The doctor's teeth clenched.

"Wait," N said, holding a hand, before the woman placed the body on the ground by the doctor, "Make sure to place her at his feet, where he can easily see her." The doctor refused to look down, as the body was laid at his feet. "Leave now."

"Aye sir," the woman said leaving the room. N approached the doctor, and laughed at him. N lifted his staff and pressed a button camouflaged into the staff. The doctor's head was then forced to look at the ground, where Rose's dead face lay before him. The doctor shut his eyes, but with another click they were forced open. Her dead face and glazed over dead eyes stared back at him. He stayed silent, watching her. It wasn't long before a drop fell from his face onto hers.

"Doctor, Doctor," N said, interrupting the silence, "It seems that I have found your weakness." N kicked her hand and kneeled before her.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" the doctor yelled. N simply laughed, and pulled out a chain from around her neck where a key hung.

"Maybe next I should take control of your TARDIS and bring back someone else. Sarah Jane Smith perhaps? Or how about Grace Holloway?" N teased, holding the key up to him. N walked away, keeping the doctor in the position of staring at Rose's dead body in front of him.

"I'm sorry," the doctor whispered, "I shouldn't have brought you here. Anywhere. Rose. I should never have… Rose Tyler, I love you." He didn't know why those words had come out, but he knew them to be as true as he knew them to ever be. He had run out of time to tell her that, and now he could only tell her dead body before him. It wasn't long before he heard a scuffled just outside of the room, before someone entered.

"Come to taunt me again, N?" the doctor asked. No response came. He could feel someone moving behind him. The blue bonds disappeared from his arms and legs; his head was freed. He yanked his head towards the entrance behind him, and saw the lime green eyed young man from before, Gref. The young man ushered the doctor to the door. The doctor began towards the door before he stopped himself, turned back around, and picked Rose up, her knees hooked on one end of his arm while her head hung from the other.

"I can't leave her," the doctor said, in response to the urgent looking face of the mute young Gref. Gref nodded and ushered him again to the door. The two ran down a long hallway, and turned a corner to an elevator, where N was lying on the floor next to. The young woman who had brought Rose to the doctor before was standing at the elevator, holding the door open.

"Come on then, we don't have long before the alarms go off," the woman said, her shining teal eyes glowing in the small amount of light. Gref nearly pushed the doctor in.

"The key!" the doctor said loudly, but the door on the elevator had closed, the woman on the inside and Gref on the outside.

"Don't worry," the woman said, holding up the necklace, "Gref will be fine as well. He can just pretend he found N there."

"Who are you?" the doctor asked, looking at the face of Rose in his arms.

"My name is Annabeth, just call me Anna," the woman replied with a soft smile, "I am sorry about your friend. There's nothing I can do to help her."

"I was… hoping that she might be just knocked out, but… she's getting cold," the doctor said watching her face, before closing them, not being able to bear seeing her dead before him.

"I really am sorry," Anna said, placing a hand on his bare shoulder, "Oh, and here." She pulled out a jumper from a messenger bag she had over her shoulder. He looked at it and sighed. "It is yours. I have your trousers in here too. Gref stole it, once we had decided to help you escape."

"I can't let her go," the doctor said.

"I'll… just keep it until we reach the base, alright?" Anna suggested. The doctor didn't respond. The elevator opened and the two dashed out.

"This way," Anna said, signaling him across a hallway, where a secret passage was open. Inside there was another young man, with maroon eyes this time, who greeted them. Anna hugged the man as the passage closed behind them.

"Thank Goodness you are all right, Annabeth!' the young man exclaimed, as the doctor pushed past the two.

"I told you we would be fine, Percy," Anna replied with a laugh.

"Doctor," the young man, Percy said, letting Anna go, and turning towards the doctor who was hurrying down the passage.

"What?" the doctor asked gruffly turning with Rose's body in his arms, "I am trying to get out of this place, finish whatever I have started, and then I plan on diving into a star, as I cannot seem to go anywhere without killing them. The universe is far better off without me."

"Doctor," Percy repeated, "Please, calm down."

"I will not calm down. That man just killed the only person in the universe I care about more than anything else, and you are telling me to calm down?" the doctor asked, his voice raising.

"I understand what you are going through, even though I haven't felt it before," Percy said calmly, "But in order to end this and get your revenge, you have to be calm. We already have a plan. We need you to get to the base, and everything will be clear. I promise."

"I don't care about your plans, or your worship, or anything else right now. I just need to put right what I made wrong. I want revenge, don't get me wrong, but right now, I don't care enough," the doctor stated, walking again down the passage.

Percy and Anna sighed simultaneously and walked forward after him. They reached the end, where a door was, and inside was a teleportation system. Percy pressed a couple of buttons and turned towards them. "Time to go home, Anna," Percy said with a frown, knowing that the doctor was not in a good mood, but he seemed to be calming slightly down.

"Just hurry up," the doctor snapped. Maybe he wasn't calming down. At least he wasn't yelling. Percy nodded and pressed a final button and the three were immediately in a bright village on the surface in the middle of a sea of grass.

"You'll need to follow me," Percy instructed. The doctor huffed. "Anna, go home. I'm sure you want to see your parents."

"So do you," Anna replied.

"I'll see them later," Percy answered shaking his head, "See you later." Anna ran off, handing the bad to Percy, saying her good-bye as well, and the two men walked towards a house just down a little bit. The houses were very old cottage style made entirely of stone and grass. Percy opened a door to one of the little cottages and signaled him to go in. Still carrying the dead Rose before him, the doctor entered, carefully, in order to not hit Rose's head against the door frame. Inside was a familiar face.

"Ian," the doctor said, "Rose is…" Ian smiled back at him, his bright purple eyes watching the doctor.

"She's not," Ian replied.

"Yes she is, look at her," the doctor answered, clenching his teeth. He was admitting it, and here Ian was, not admitting it even though it was right before his eyes. Ian just met her, and was close enough to be in denial longer than he was.

"I know," Ian replied, "Sit, Doctor." The doctor did not.

"Why did you… you let her go?" the doctor nearly yelled, holding her head up.

"I did not let her go," Ian replied with a sigh, "She insisted."

"You didn't protect her," the doctor said quietly, "I didn't protect her. I was completely useless, and she's dead now."

"Calm down, Doctor," Ian replied.

"You're the second one who has told me to do that. Why don't you calm down?" The doctor yelled irrationally.

"Doctor," a voice so sweet said from behind. The doctor looked around, and his eyes went wide. He looked back at Rose's dead body and back at the one who had spoken.

"How…?" the doctor asked dumbfounded, seeing Rose alive and well standing right behind him, while dead and cold in his arms. He looked to Ian, who held a staff much like the one that N had, and clicked a button. The body in his hands changed to a very crudely built skeleton of an android. The doctor looked at the machine, then to Ian, then to Rose.

"It is an imaging android. She was hooked up to the imaging chamber, and controlled it remotely. You see, I would not let her actually go in there. The toxin locked up the controls, and she couldn't do anything but watch. Couldn't hear either, and it took a while to get it ready, which is why it took a few days to rescue you. In order to trick N she had to have the TARDIS key, which we risked, but were able to retrieve, thanks to Anna, correct?" Ian asked, looking at Percy who nodded and Ian nodded with a smile. The doctor placed the machine on the seat Ian offered to him before, and walked over to Rose, wrapping his arms around her. She returned the gesture, hugging him back, but the doctor's sharp inhale ended the embrace on her part quickly, upon seeing his back.

"Your back, Doctor," Rose said, her eyes wide.

"It stings," the doctor replied, "Is it that bad?" He was being fairly casual about it, his arms still around her, while her arms were holding his side, to avoid his back.

"Very," Rose answered. His back was extremely bad. There was a giant scab covering his whole back, black in color, and red blotches all around it. It was more than bad, and it was disgusting looking, but Rose didn't seem to mind, except for the fact that it was causing him such pain.

"I don't care," the doctor stated, finally letting go of Rose, though his hands took a hold of her hands.

"I hate to break up the reunion," Ian said interrupting the two, "But I believe it's time for you to read the forbidden pages." The doctor kept one of her hands in his, quite tightly, afraid to lose her again, and turned to face Ian.

"You have them?" the doctor asked.

"In fact, we do. Percy was the one who read them first, gave them to N, or the ones you told him to, and then stole them back and brought them here. Just as you instructed," Ian explained, "Don't worry, we know you aren't a god. We're the disbelievers in all of this."

"You sure were a good actor," the doctor said, his smile spread across his entire face.

"I had to be. I was the spy for us in Ember. Percy and Annabeth were the ones in Mordor," Ian explained, "It was safer in Ember for me, and the people insisted I stay in the safer position, as I am their leader. Son of the leader, really. My father's in a coma. Ember believes he died while scouting the path you took to get to Ember."

"Why… why did you help me?" the doctor asked.

"You are a good person. Chakir the Prophet saw this. You have done bad things in the past, but you have done more than you need to for forgiveness. Ever since, Chakir's time, his descendants have had the power to see the future. We have run this world ever since. We are the reason the world has believed you a god, because we want to help you. We want you to get the message you have wanted to give yourself, because you have had so much evil done on you. You have lost more than you ever should have. You are a good man, who has saved us many times. By making you the god of the world, we have survived. Our planet has faced extinction, and only the hope of you and the faith in you has kept the believers alive. I know. I have seen the future we would have if not for you."

With his free hand, the one not holding Rose's hand, he placed it on his forehead and looked at Ian curiously. "Thank you," the doctor said.

"It is you we must thank. You have given us hope, and have given life to so many generations of people who believe in hope. And now, we give you, your reward," Ian said, taking out a few pages of page from his pocket, and offering them to the doctor.

"The forbidden pages," Rose said, as the two walked forward, and the doctor took them with his free hand and closed his eyes.

"Could I have my clothes back?" the doctor asked, holding the papers to his chest, as to not peek, "I am getting a bit chilly." Rose laughed a little bit, before she looked back, and Percy walked forward, Anna's messenger bag in hand.

"You might be careful with that," Rose warned, "Your back could sting even more with it on."

"I'll be fine," the doctor replied taking the bag, and pulling out his jumper, before placing it on his head, and beginning to pull it down, his hand letting go of Rose's to help get it down. "That hurts." Rose giggled, before she went to the doctor's back, and help pull the shirt down his back, gingerly, with it barely touching the very injured back.

"Are you in pain? We can take it off if it's bad," Rose suggested.

"I'm fine," the doctor said, "I can tolerate a lot of pain. The jacket now." Rose nodded and took out the jacket, and helped place it around him. He placed the forbidden pages into his jacket pocket. "It's heavier than I remember."

"No reason for it to be," Rose replied. Maybe it was just awhile since he had it that made it feel heavy. Rose looked at the doctor and the doctor looked at Rose. Silence fell for a few moments. "What now?" Rose asked. The doctor looked towards Ian.

"I came up with plenty to do, but I've forgotten it, thanks to N," the doctor noted.

"We already know what to do next," Ian replied, "We've read it, and I've seen it."

"We're going to take over both places. N will be defeated, and the citizens of Ember will come back to the surface. Then you will leave, Doctor," Percy explained.

"Let's go," Rose suggested, but Percy shook his head.

"Unfortunately, we have to wait until tomorrow. Preparations are not complete," Ian said.

"Tomorrow then. It is getting late," Rose said looking out at the darkening sky, "So where'll we stay?"

"Here. There is a room for the two of you; however, there is only one bed. We are short on supplies, and our community is much larger than we believed it will be," Ian answered with a small nod, "It is a large bed, though. It is too bad we can't sneak into your TARDIS, but it is back in Ember." The doctor and Rose looked at each other, before the two smiled and laughed.

"First one there gets the bed?" Rose suggested.

"That wouldn't be fair, Rose; I will always win, especially in a running race," the doctor replied, "I have been running all my life."

"Then beat me, Mr. Runner," Rose teased, playfully hitting his shoulder, before running off, towards the room which was only a few feet away, the doctor running after her. She dived onto the bed, and turned herself around and smiled at the doctor, who had jumped just a second after her, onto the bed next to her. However, he cringed and bit his lower lip to prevent a yell of pain coming.

"Are you ok?" Rose asked.

"Of course, I'm ok, when am I not ok?" the doctor asked with a grin, but it was obvious it was fake. Rose frowned.

"Come on, you," Rose sighed, sitting towards his back, before she began to take off his jacket.

"What..?" the doctor asked, "Why are you taking off my jacket?"

"Your back. You can't sleep on it like that. You need to get it healed and no contact with a shirt will help," Rose explained, continuing to pull the jacket slowly off.

"I'm fine, really, Rose," the doctor insisted, holding the jacket on, but his back was not allowing him to do so, and Rose pulled off the jacket with a little bit of resistance. She then started on his jumper.

"You aren't," Rose finally replied, as she pulled off the jumper completely off, and looked at the black back. She couldn't help but feel bad. She should've gone in sooner. "I'm sorry."

"What? Why?" the doctor asked.

"I should have come to get you sooner," Rose replied.

"No," the doctor said, "It's not your fault. It was my fault for getting caught in that position."

"You were just trying to correct a wrong you though you did," Rose said, "Sending the journal somehow here."

"Maybe, but I shouldn't have left you without telling you anything more. I should have escaped on my own," the doctor replied, "I'm the one who should be saving you."

"Oi! I can watch after myself, Doctor," Rose replied, "Why can't I be the one to save you sometimes, huh?"

"You've already saved me so many times," the doctor answered.

"When?" Rose retorted.

"Every time you have been the one to save me," the doctor replied.

"That's not true," Rose said shaking her head, taking a bowl of water from a grass stand next to the bed and ripping a strip off of her shirt, dipping it in the bowl and placing it on his back. He responded by getting tense, but then releasing the tension and relaxing.

"When I met you, you saved me from the nesting consciousness. You've always been there, when I needed help reminding me of who I used to be, and the man I needed to become. You were the one who healed me," the doctor replied.

"You saved me loads of times too," Rose noted.

"Not as much as what you have saved me from," the doctor said, looking back at her, "You asked about the Time War on New Earth, right?"

"I did, but if you don't want to talk about it…" Rose began.

"I don't. I want to erase it from my memory, but that doesn't mean I should not tell you about it. It's about time you heard about it," the doctor said. However, Rose shook her head, soothing his terribly injured back with the piece of her shirt and the water Ian or someone must have placed in there, knowing she would need it. If that was it, then why wasn't there a cloth? It probably fell.

"No," Rose said, "If you're not ready, then…"

"I am ready," the doctor confirmed looking back at her, turning his whole body towards her, making it so she was no longer trying to help his back injury out. "The Time War…"


	5. The Fake God - Part 3

**Here is the final part! I hope you all enjoy it! I wasn't particularly happy with some  
parts of it, but overall, it definitely isn't as bad as I thought it was going to turn out.**

_Running, running, running. He had to get away. He had to get the weapon done, or the whole universe was going to die. Humans and Daleks alike. The Time Lords were going to destroy the universe. It was so close to being done, but they had found him. They were attacking him. He was running, death barely missing him by inches, as he swerved randomly around the large orange forest on Gallifrey. Just one final adjustment on the Moment and he would wipe out every living thing in the Time War, and Time Lock the war so this could never be prevented. He dived into a bush, and fiddled with the Moment for the second he needed. A Time Lady stood over him. _

"_Doctor," the Time Lady said._

"_I'm surprised you recognize me, it's been several regenerations, Romana," the doctor replied, his long brown hair against the ground._

"_I could say the same for you," Romana replied pointing the gun at the doctor still, not hesitating. _

"_I don't like this new regeneration, your nose is really funky. Couldn't you have straightened up those teeth a bit too? I thought you were the master of regenerations," the doctor commented with a jovial laugh. _

"_I'm sorry, Doctor," Romana said ignoring the doctor's comment and continuing on, "I can't let you kill all of us. My family, my people… Our people. It is the only war for us to survive this war."_

"_Says you. Leaving your post at the start of the war, while I fought for us," the doctor retorted. _

"_I did what I had to do to find myself. Now, my family can live on and this terrible war can end. You can descend with us," Romana suggested. The doctor looked like he thought about it for a moment. _

"_Really? They would let me come with them?" the doctor asked faking intrigue, a hand hidden behind the Moment, adjusting it slightly. _

"_Yes, Doctor, we would love if you were to come," Romana said. _

"_He really has brainwashed you, Romana. You know I would never allow what Rassilon wants to happen," the doctor said sorrowfully, pressing a button with his concealed hand, which fired off the Moment, engulfing the whole world and sector, everywhere the Time War was, destroyed. _

_He then awoke inside of his TARDIS, his head throbbing. He looked around, before he breathed out regeneration energy. 'Oh great' he thought to himself, trying to remember what happened, when everything flooded back to him. The Moment. He should be dead. Then the TARDIS. It saved him. It formed around him in that instant and disappeared in the same instant, bringing him here. Why? He didn't deserve it. He should have died with them. Yet here he was. For some thing or another. _

The doctor awoke the next morning, laying on his stomach, his jumper and jacket both on the floor, with Rose cuddled up next to him. Luckily his slacks were still on which told him that he did not forget anything that happened the night before that would be very important, and it would have been very stupid. He sighed and placed an arm around her shoulders, feeling her warm body against his colder. She looked so peaceful, and his back was feeling slightly better than the night before. He moved out of the bed, and put on his jumper and jacket, despite it still hurting, as Rose was stirring.

"Doctor," Rose mumbled, "Don't put your clothes back on." The doctor smiled at the suggestion, knowing Rose couldn't see it, before he chuckled.

"I have a reputation," the doctor replied back, "I can't go into this confrontation in just my trousers." Rose soon pushed herself up and sighed at the doctor.

"Fine, but as soon as we are back on the TARDIS, you're going to take it off," Rose compromised serious looking at the doctor, not being able to help but stop. She stood up, and kissed his cheek before skipping out of the room to find Ian out in the main room just like before.

The doctor stopped getting dressed and watched her leave the room, before he snapped back into reality and what he was supposed to be doing. He exchanged the slacks he was wearing with his slacks, and straightened his jacket. He nodded in approval and made his way out to the main area of the little cottage.

"Did you two sleep well?" Ian asked.

"Quite," Rose answered with a smile, looking up at the doctor, who nodded.

"When are we going?" the doctor asked.

"As soon as you are ready," Ian said with a nod.

"I'm ready," Rose stated, "Doctor?"

"Never been more ready," the doctor replied with a grin.

"We're doing it just as you wrote, doctor," Ian said, "Hopefully, if everything happens just as it does before, few will die."

"No one should die," the doctor stated.

"You never specified if anyone died, Doctor. You said it was a success," Ian replied.

"So much that I wrote, and yet I did not warn myself if someone would die," the doctor sighed shaking his head.

"The troops are ready. Their weapons are on stun, don't worry," Ian noted and the three headed out of the cottage, seeing the small village crowded with people equip with protective armor and guns set on stun. "You'll be leading a small team to keep N busy. Once you are able to defeat him, I will make the announcement to everyone in the world. Tamil has agreed to listen to me. If the leaders of the factions tell their people to listen, they will listen and believe. Once N is distracted, we will use the android and tell his people to listen to us."

"It's a brilliant plan, but…" the doctor began trailing off.

"There will be those who don't listen," Rose finished.

"It is true. But unity will be closer than it ever has before. Being a direct descendant of Chakir the Prophet does give me a good edge, so many will listen, as long as the real N does not interfere while everyone is relocated to the surface to hear me," Ian explained, "If you can, I would like you to speak before you leave, only if you can distract N long enough. You may have to kill him."

"That will be the last resort, but if I must, I will," the doctor answered, taking Rose's hand and squeezing it. Rose squeezed back and looked at the doctor with a smile.

"You can do it," Rose said.

"Of course I can," the doctor replied with a huge grin and a chuckle.

Later, the two and their small team consisting of Percy and another young man about Percy's age named Luke (they were fairly good friends apparently, which was quite funny to the doctor and Rose), who had bright yellow eyes, rose to the city in the sky, entering underground (really under cloud) tunnels Rose had used, and N had yet to find… hopefully. They were charging down the tunnel alone, while Ian was preparing to gather everyone on the surface, which would take some time to do. The other three had their guns set on stun ready, while the doctor and Rose ran hand and hand towards their goal.

"I did not expect that she was alive," a familiar voice said from behind the whole team. They all turned around quickly to face the robed, white eyed, burnt faced N.

"N," the doctor said, letting go of Rose's hand and walking towards him.

"I wouldn't suggest that," N said with a smile, pointing his rod at the doctor. He fell to his knees, biting his lip. The pain. The pain was coming back. The burning sensation all through his body. Rose ran to his side, worried, ignoring the warning N gave to stay away from him.

"Just stop it," the doctor said, "Ian is already changing it all."

"I don't care," N said with a laugh, "I don't care if I lose all of my followers. I just want to see you punished."

"What is it with your obsession with him?" Rose asked, knelled beside the doctor, who shooed her away, but she still stayed.

"He ruined this world!" N shouted clicking the button again, causing the doctor to try to suppress a yell of pain again as the fire ran under his skin once more.

"Stop it! Just stop it! Leave him alone," Rose ordered, stepping closer to N, but the doctor took ahold of her leg to hold her back.

"Don't," the doctor ordered through clenched teeth.

"Doctor…" Rose said looking back at him.

"Please," the doctor said looking into her eyes, despite being on his knees, meaning he had to look up to look into her eyes, "I can't lose you again."

"You won't," Rose answered.

"Shut up!" N interrupted, "You and her are sickening. Why do you get someone important? What makes you so special?"

"Now you're talking like a jealous kid," Rose replied, "He's a good, good man, and he's worth dying over. He's worth more than you will ever be."

"_I_ am the one who destroyed every one of his friends and family? Committed genocide of two beings? Wiped them from existence? I was the one who brought this world from the cinders, I am the ultimate bringer of peace, and he is just a common murderer," N spat.

"You brought death, N," Luke interjected from behind them, "You brought a deadly revolution against us, and yet you believe yourself the savior? The doctor saved our planet countless times without even being here before."

"That was me," N said not looking away from Rose and the doctor, "I have escaped death more times than you, Doctor."

"You're a liar," Luke interjected again, before the doctor could respond.

"Oh really?" N replied with a cackle, "Then I will show you how I have lived and how I will live forever." N raised his arms, and Rose ran forward to stop him, only for N to fall into her arms, no longer breathing.

"What?" Luke said curiously walking forward towards N's body in Rose's hands. The doctor stood up, and approached as well.

"He's dead," Rose pronounced.

"Or is he?" Percy asked from behind the doctor, before hitting the doctor's back with the stun gun, causing him to fall to the ground, surprised and hurt.

"What are you doing, Percy?" Luke asked, as Rose kneeled down to help the doctor back up.

"He's not Percy anymore," the doctor said, standing back up, and watching Percy with his maroon eyes staring back at him, yet knowing it was not Percy anymore, "He won't ever be Percy again." The doctor walked up closer to Percy.

"Clever," Percy said with a grin. Luke began towards Percy, curiously, but the doctor held up an arm to stop him.

"Don't," the doctor warned, "He's not Percy any more. That is N." The doctor looked at Percy curiously. "It's just a matter of how, now."

"I was ripped apart when I found your books," N explained, using Percy's body.

"And you were freed from your body," the doctor added, "I see. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am very sorry."

"It won't stop you from doing it again," N said shaking his head, "You will send your books here, and trap me like this, no matter what happens. In the meantime, I want to punish you for it." N held up his hand and his staff flew into his hand. "I suppose I should have seen her living, after all, I foresaw it."

"You're a telepath, just as your descendants are," the doctor explained, mostly to show off that he found it all out, as well as explain to the other two what was going on, "Chakir the Prophet, with the future pouring into his head. Your descendants suffer from foresight as well, the future seeping into their minds through the cracks left from the anomaly that brought the books to this world."

"My, you are cleverer than I gave you credit for," N laughed, "I am Chakir the Prophet."

"When did you find out?" the doctor asked curiously, walking closer to Percy, really N, and looking around him, but N responded with a press of the button, that made the doctor fall, as N moved swiftly away from him. Rose hurried to his side again and helped him up.

"The Battle of Long-Hu," N answered, "You see, I was said to have died there. Everyone believed I did as well, but the body disappeared, because I had no body. I was knocked out, and somehow, I was able to rise from my grave. I began exploring my abilities, and soon took corporeal form once again, possessing a young boy who was visiting my grave."

"I don't understand," Rose interjected, "You were a ghost? Like a Gelth, or something?" Rose looked towards the doctor.

"Similar. His consciousness was ripped from his body, and left to roam this world. It's happened only once before that I know about. He's like a ghost, but not really," the doctor explained, "He can't change bodies rapidly. He's stuck in Percy's body for the next few hours."

"So, if we kill him," Rose began suggesting.

"We're not killing Percy," Luke interjected.

"It's not my plan," the doctor said.

"It's not going to work, Doctor," N said with a laugh, "I will live forever, and you will do nothing about it. You _can't _do anything about it."

"You're right," the doctor said bowing his head, before looking back into Percy's maroon eyes, "I can't do anything about it. I could easily end your life, but I can't. Percy is still in there somewhere, just as the man you possessed before was somewhere in your head."

"Very impressive. I will say, he was an annoying one," N noted, "Always raving about Sauron rewarding him. It was getting very annoying."

"Shut it," Luke ordered, "Don't you talk about anyone like that. If anyone is annoying here, it's you. You think you are all high and mighty because you can change bodies. You survive by leeching off of other people. You're just a coward." N glared at Luke, and pointing the staff at Luke, pressing the button. However, the doctor quickly shielded Luke from the invisible beam, moving before the button was pressed, or he would not have been able to block it. The doctor fell again, as the pain ran through his body.

"You won't harm him," the doctor said.

"Doctor, Doctor," N taunted, waving the staff around lazily.

"The only way to stop you, is to end you now," the doctor stated.

"Then do it," N said, "Kill another innocent life."

"I can't. I won't kill him. But you know there is another way. I can end you now, and save Percy," the doctor said.

"How?" N asked, humoring him, quite arrogant at the fact knowing there was no other way, or at least he did not know of another way.

"You'll see," the doctor said winking at N. N laughed and pointed his staff at Rose.

"It's a nonexistent solution," N laughed, "And now it is time for your punishment. You've already lost her once, now it's time to lose her for good." The doctor looked at Rose just across the length of the passage, too far to try to shield her, but he dashed anyways. However, nothing happened. The doctor took her by the shoulders and looked at her with a smile.

"Are you ok?" the doctor asked.

"I'm… great," Rose answered. The doctor shook his head and turned towards where N was standing. Behind him, N seemed to be wrestling with himself, the staff thrown to the side.

"I won't let you-" N struggled to get out.

"I will beat you-"

"Get out of my head!"

"This is my body now! Obey!"

Percy's body seemed to be fighting itself. Percy's voice was coming out, and N was fighting to keep it back. "You won't harm anyone else." Percy fell to the ground, his eyes closed. He breathed out a white vapor, which raced through the passage and out the way they came. The doctor sighed.

"He's won," the doctor stated. Rose looked at him confused.

"I don't get it," Rose said looking at Percy, "N was in his body. Now he's not? How did Percy do it?"

"He knew what was coming. He prepared his body to weaken the control of Chakir," the doctor explained, as Luke ran to Percy's side, "He's been drinking a poison to things like him known as Yalytir, a substance found here in the later excavations."

"How did he know?" Luke asked, pulling Percy up, but Percy was completely out cold.

"I told him. Or I will. In my journal, the forbidden pages," the doctor explained quickly, taking Rose's hand and walking up to where Luke and Percy were, "He knew that this was going to happen the whole time."

"And," Percy said, his eyes fluttering open, not able to support himself yet, "I knew that even what is to come will come as well."

"What?" Rose asked.

"No," the doctor said, his eyes going wide.

"I knew all of this was to happen. I wanted to do this. Remember that," Percy said as a small smile appeared on his face, "Just tell Annabeth…"

"Quiet," Luke said, "You can tell her whatever yourself."

"He… can't," the doctor replied closing his eyes, letting go of Rose's hand, "Percy. I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault. I had plenty of chances to turn back. You did warn me," Percy replied.

"He's dying," Rose stated.

"He can't," Luke insisted, "Annabeth is waiting for you. You two are supposed to..."

"I was always meant to die here," Percy replied, "I told Annabeth about it. She knew. We made our time together worthwhile. She thinks I just have a fatal illness, but… it obviously isn't true."

"Percy… why do you have to die?" Luke asked.

"I'm… part of the few who are allergic to Yalytir. I was poisoning not only N, but myself," Percy explained.

"I am sorry, Percy," the doctor said once more, "I didn't know…"

"You did. You'll tell me later to do so. But don't worry, you give plenty of warnings. I think a good three pages? That sounds about right. You won't have a choice but to send the journal. You will just have the chance to give yourself the warning, or let all of this happen for nothing, and have N win," Percy explained looking at the doctor in the eye, "I did what I was supposed to, and I am happy to do it."

"What do you mean he won't have a choice?" Rose asked.

"He never sent the journal on purpose. In fact, he wrote several more travels after the forbidden pages, they were all just assumed forbidden. It was all an accident," Percy explained, "But the pages explain everything else." The doctor studied Percy's eyes, level with his own, as Luke was still supporting the young man.

"Look after Annabeth, Luke. She needs someone," Percy requested, before taking a deep breathe in, "Oh Chakir isn't happy."

"He's still in there?" Luke asked.

"Oh yes. I exhaled some of the poison, Chakir forced me to. But it's already done its damage. Once I die, so does Chakir. Forever; he'll finally get the death he's been waiting for," Percy said his breathes getting heavier, "I know you didn't want this to happen, but it all has to happen. I want to thank you, Doctor, for bringing out people hope."

"I did not do it on purpose," the doctor replied anger building in his eyes, not at Percy, but at himself.

"Don't beat yourself up over my death," Percy laughed, "I wanted to make a world where these divisions didn't divide us. My death will mean Chakir dies, and his name will still live on as our fabled prophet."

"Percy…" the doctor said quietly.

"You don't have to die, Percy," Rose tried to insist, "There has to be an antidote, or something."

"Don't even try. You know, even Chakir believed in you in the beginning. It was only the years that he lived on that made him into who he became. He was the one who organized this planet and saved us. He gave us hope, and by ending him, I save his name," Percy said quickly, before he coughed, his face seeming to sweat. "Don't have long now. Doctor, make sure you send that warning to yourself. Make sure to read it. For me. Ok?"

"I will," the doctor said, as Percy smiled, before his breathe stopped. Luke set him down, closing Percy's eyes.

"He was such a good person," Luke said quietly, "You better not let it in vain."

"I won't," the doctor replied, "It won't ever be in vain. He did not die for me alone. Whatever important warning I may have given myself, it was never as important to him as his people. You heard him, he did it to help Chakir die and keep his name as a symbol of hope."

"He did it for all of us, I know," Luke sighed, before picking up Percy's body, "I have to get him to the surface, tell his parents… and Annabeth." The doctor nodded and Rose watched as Luke walked down the path with the dead body of his friend.

* * *

"Doctor," Rose said, leaning against the TARDIS console, "Are you sure it was the right thing?"

"I don't know. Percy… Chakir…. They both suffered because of my journal, and who knows who else," the doctor replied, walking towards the door, opening it. Outside was the grass plain they had landed on before, but ahead, there were thousands of people around a man, whose face was projected into the side.

"Ian has it under control," the doctor said, as Rose came out and stood next to the doctor, who was leaning against the TARDIS.

"Why did you do all of this anyways?" Rose asked.

"What?" the doctor asked, "Oh I don't know. I haven't read about it yet. I guess I just forgot. I was more preoccupied with telling you about the end of the Time War."

"Why not read it now?" Rose asked.

"Later," the doctor said simply.

"I was also wondering… Ian said you didn't actually take the journal from the pyramid," Rose said.

"I didn't," the doctor replied.

"So what did you take?" Rose asked.

"I lied," the doctor replied, "Though I guess you could say that I didn't." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a newer looking version of the journal from the pyramid. "He never found it, though."

"You clever man," Rose said looking up at the doctor with a sweet smile on her face, "Are you going to get your older one from the pyramid?"

"No," the doctor answered.

"But that could be dangerous, you said so," Rose pointed out.

"Ian will have it destroyed," the doctor added with a small smile.

"How do you know?" Rose asked.

"I'll make sure to put it in the forbidden pages that Chakir shouldn't read. Percy did give Chakir some, and Ian a few more, after all," the doctor explained with a grin.

"Let's go, then," Rose said with a smile, looking at the smiling face of Ian in the sky, before walking back in the blue box. The doctor followed.

"Now, off with the jacket and the jumper," Rose ordered, before smiling widely, "And not like that; only in your dreams." She was just teasing, thinking he wasn't thinking about that, and that it was a simple joke. The doctor laughed, and did as he was told, seeing her joke as proof of her not thinking of him in the same way as he looked at her. "You know, maybe I should be with you when you sleep, so I can help heal that back of yours every night."

"I… don't see why not," the doctor replied with his mad grin sprouting all over his face.

"Just until you are healed," Rose added.

"Of course," the doctor said, his grin slightly falling, but still quite large.

"But that will take a while," Rose noted, her tongue between her teeth as she smiled, her teeth and tongue showing.

"Oh yes, a long while," the doctor agreed.

* * *

It was later that night, when Rose was asleep, after applying a medicine rub from the TARDIS that would help heal his back, when the doctor rose from the bed, careful not to wake Rose. He walked over to where he had hung his jacket on his door, and pulled out the forbidden pages of his journal. The first couple of pages were just instructions to make sure everything went smoothly with Ian and Percy, and everyone who would read the pages. But the last two pages were a note to him. He read over the note carefully.

The doctor nodded, understanding why he had sent the warnings and instructions, and not just because it made that world survive and hope because of him, but because of something very important that would happen in the future if he were not warned. At the end of the last page was the only real warning he was given, the other parts being his justification, knowing how he would be mad at himself for doing such, but not enough to reveal anything large in his future. He told himself that if he didn't heed the warning, he would lose Rose, and that he felt that saving the world for several thousand years was worth the harm it did to that world. When he read it, he wasn't sure he agreed with the note, but eventually he would understand it. Just as the warning. It didn't make much sense to him at the moment, but he was sure it would eventually. He sighed, taking the pages and burning them, before he returned to bed, where Rose was snuggled up in his sheets, and he laid on his stomach, and thought, not really needing sleep. He really was only there because Rose needed sleep and he liked having her next to him sleeping peacefully, even if they were still only friends. The doctor laid awake, looking at the head of his bed, Rose snuggled up next to his colder body, thinking over things, the whole mess he made, the Time War, Romana, even memories of Ian, Barbara and Susan seemed to pop up, as he thought of his life so far and what was to come.

Burning, only one message could be read as the doctor laid in his bed, next to Rose, slowly burning away:

_Avoid the void when the ghosts arrive._


	6. School Reunion

**We're skipping Tooth and Claw, not because I don't like it, but because I really don't think it would be different enough to be interesting, though references and flashbacks may be made to the episode, since Torchwood was created then. I love the episode, but I am skipping it. Sorry… But here's High School Reunion with my personal favorite 4****th**** doctor companion, Sarah Jane. Romana is cool too, though. **

**Sorry for the long wait, but it is a very long chapter, and I spent a long while getting it  
like it is now. I hope you like it. Any who, here's School Reunion!**

"Where to next?" Rose asked with a grin.

"Somewhere with some food," the doctor said tapping his chin before he pointed into the sky happily, jumper and jacket by the door, as his back was still quite injured from a previous adventure, "Tarlok V! They have the best chicken in the universe."

"Which one is it?" Rose asked.

"That one," the doctor said pointing to a star on the console. Rose nodded.

"Time?" Rose wondered.

"Any time after… 2034. I would avoid 3056, civil war, not pretty," the doctor noted as he smiled and Rose nodded before looking at the console.

"All right, let's see if I can do this," Rose said happily, before she looked at the doctor and pointed at him, "Don't you try to help." He raised his hands like he was being arrested.

"I wouldn't dream of it," the doctor replied.

"Dematerialize first," Rose began, and muttered a few more things before she pulled down a lever, and hopped around to the other side and fiddled with some of the controls before hurrying to the other side and looking at the console screen. She flew around the console and made sure to press the right buttons.

"Don't forget the time modulator!" the doctor burst out, causing Rose to glare at him for a moment.

"I wasn't going to," Rose replied looking around the console and pressing one of the buttons, "Happy?" The TARDIS rocked and sent the two to the sides, Rose running up to the screen and sighing in frustration. "We've landed. And I think we're where we should be… but… we've landed on the side." The doctor laughed, and approached Rose happily.

"You've improved," the doctor commented.

"The TARDIS has been tutoring me," Rose replied with a laugh.

"The TARDIS? She's never tried to help me," the doctor said with a small pout.

"Jealous, are you?" Rose asked, laughing at his reaction.

"Me? Not at all," the doctor replied, his grin returning, his pouting seeming to be over.

"Uh huh. Not at all. Your TARDIS loves me more than it does you," Rose teased.

"Not true!" the doctor insisted. Rose lowered her ear to the console and ran her hand along the smooth surface on the edge.

"Who loves Rose more than the doctor?" Rose cooed, teasing the doctor still.

"Not the TARDIS!" the doctor insisted crossing his arm watching Rose petting the TARDIS, "You're doing it wrong, anyways. She likes it like… this." The doctor placed his hand on the console and rubbed the side smoothly with one hand, while with the other he danced across the smooth surface with his fingers, brushing them along the surface. The TARDIS hum seemed to get ever so slightly louder as he did that.

"Show off," Rose laughed, before running towards the door and opening it, "Let's eat." The doctor smiled and hurried after her, pulling on his jumper and jacket as he exited the TARDIS. The two took each other's hand, and walked into the bustling city before them. It looked like a normal city on Earth, and as the doctor explained, it was a human colony built in the image of Tokyo. The doctor guided Rose through the crowd and into a small place that she would have missed if the doctor had not pointed it out.

Inside was a very small diner setting where only a couple of other people were. Two tables and a bar was fit into the small store. The doctor guided Rose to the bar where he smiled at the tender.

"Doctor! Great to see you again," the woman from behind the counter said, "The usual?"

"No," the doctor replied, ignoring the surprised look on Rose's face, "Two orders of your Martian Chips, and a Choco-Doc Shake." He leaned in and whispered. "My lady friend is a bit grumpy."

"Hey!" Rose exclaimed, "I am not. If anyone is, it's you, Doctor."

"See, I told you," the doctor teased smiling at Rose.

"It's nice to see you finally happy," the woman said with a smile at the doctor's attitude, "Just yesterday you were probably the most depressed person in the sector, and given Ernie's house foreclosure and his wife leaving him for some model, is really saying something."

"Has it really only been a day?" the doctor asked with a smile.

"A little less than a day, actually," the woman replied.

"It seems like a life time ago. Thank you, Trinity," the doctor said, tapping the bar, before turning towards Rose, "Let's go sit." The two headed towards a nearby table by the window, as the other was full, and sat across the small table from each other.

"So what's up with her?" Rose asked with a teasing smile.

"Oh a little of this, a little of that. I came here before with this face," the doctor explained, "After you had refused to come that first time. I came here, met a few people, including Trinity there. Really… I do believe I came here for about a year, before she convinced me to go back and try once more, which must have been yesterday to her."

"I thought… you had just come right back," Rose said curiously.

"Time can be a tricky thing. But no, I didn't. I had given up. You know how I was back then. Just out of the war, and not used to carrying the burden of the Time Lords," the doctor explained, "Trinity even named the shake after me, Choco-Doc Shake. It was my favorite. It is a chocolate shake with a bit of banana in it."

"Really?" Rose asked leaning towards him slightly, elbows on the table.

"Yes," the doctor replied mimicking her move, leaving little table left. The two looked at each other for a few moments, before Trinity came around with their chips and the shake. Both Rose and the doctor made identical moves to lean back in their seats and allow the food to be placed on their table.

"Charge my account?" the doctor said to Trinity.

"As always," Trinity said walking away, peering at the two on her way back to the bar.

"You have an account?" Rose asked raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"Otherwise I'd have to carry money with me every time I came. I found it too encumber some after the third time, and made an account," the doctor explained, "Haven't used it but for this place."

"Why did you come here, of all places? No offense, it is nice, just not the place you would seem to pick," Rose asked curiously.

"It was a small place with few people. The people didn't ask too many questions, and eventually they got me to open up," the doctor told her taking a chip and eating it, "It is a famed place to Time Lords, something about their chips is so addicting. That… and I heard someone saying something about the chocolate banana shake here being the best in the galaxy, I just had to give it a try." Rose took a drink of the shake and smiled as she did so.

"I am glad you found this place, then," Rose said, "It is a very nice getaway… and this shake is quite fantastic."

"Isn't it?" the doctor asked with a laugh, "Most fantastic shake I've ever had." Rose couldn't help but smile leaning slightly forward in her chair closer to the doctor, who was doing the same. However, the air seemed to become tense as the two looked at each other, the laughter fading away, but the smiles still as strong as before. The next couple of seconds seemed like a lifetime. The doctor could swear that she was leaning in closer with each passing moment, and he could not seem to stop himself from doing the same. They were very close, just millimeters apart, their lips close to being connected. It wouldn't take much to close the gap, just a bit further.

Buzz! Buzz! The two snapped out the trance like state, pulling themselves away, quickly. A little too quick, for the doctor nearly knocked the chair he was in over, and his back hit the back of his seat causing him to hold back any outward sign of the pain. His back was still quite bad, even if it had been nearly a week, and normally his injuries repaired by this time. After all, he had a superior repair system, which might have been the only reason that he could have survived getting the injury as bad as he did. At least it did not really sting just to be fully dressed.

Rose reached for her phone in her front pocket and upon seeing who was calling, she huffed before clicking the talk button.

"Hi, Mickey; what's going on?" Rose asked, nodding her head looking at the doctor with an 'I'm sorry he called' face. "We'll be right there." Rose nodded once more. "Bye."

"What does Ricky want?" the doctor asked once the call was over.

"There's some school he thinks something weird is going on at," Rose sighed, "We can always finish our chips first, right?"

"If it's important we should go," the doctor stated before cracking a smile, "We can always finish them later. Who wants to sit around here when Ricky the Idiot has work for us?"

"Stop calling him that," Rose said, a bit deflated at the doctor's response.

"Trinity," the doctor called, ignoring Rose's request, "Could we have a to-go tray?"

"Of course," Trinity replied with a grin.

"It's not like that," the doctor sighed shaking his head.

"I'm just teasing you, Doctor," Trinity replied laughing softly to herself, bringing a container to the table. Rose smiled and the doctor placed the remaining chips in the box, before the two stood from the table. The doctor nodded as a good-bye to Trinity, as Rose took his hand with her right hand, and with her left she took the shake and took a drink of it as the two headed towards the TARDIS.

* * *

"Good morning class," the doctor said walking across the front of the classroom then walking up to the board and writing the word 'physics' across it. The doctor looked different. He was wearing a pair of nice slacks and a white button up shirt with a nice dark day jacket with minimal wear.

"So we're in physics right?" the doctor asked, grinning at the classroom, causing some to smile despite being quite bored looking, "I really hope so, otherwise I might have walked into the wrong classroom. Wouldn't be the first time." The doctor sat on the top of his desk at the front and his feet swung back and forth, careful not to hit the desk with his feet. "First thing's first. We'll need to learn what you know already." The doctor scanned the crowd and was silent for a moment. "Come on, tell me what you know. Don't be shy." Silence fell. The doctor sighed. "All right, I'll start. Two identical strips of nylon are charged with static electricity and hung from a string so they can swing freely. What would happen if they were brought near each other?"

A bespectacled boy raised his hand. The doctor looked around seeing no one else. "All right, you… er…"

"Milo," the boy answered.

"Go for it," the doctor instructed.

"They'd repel each other because they have the same charge," Milo answered.

"A smart one in the class," the doctor said a grin all over his face, "Maybe you should teach the class, Milo." Milo didn't answer. "Well, not one for jokes I see. Continuing on. Let's see… basic physics… I coil up a thin piece of micro-wire and place it in a glass of water. Then I turn on the electricity and measure to see if the water's temperature is affected. My question is this. How do I measure the electrical power going into the coil?" Milo raised his hand. The doctor shook his head and smiled. "Anyone else? Is Milo the only one? All right, go for it."

"Measure the current and PDs in an ammeter and a voltmeter," Milo answered. The doctor narrowed his eyebrows in slight confusion. This must have been what Ian felt like having Susan in class. He jumped off the desk.

"It seems we have the class genius here," the doctor said, "I like you, Milo." The doctor messed with the jacket he was wearing. "When did they make these jackets so uncomfortable?"

"The current design of your jacket first originated in the year 2000," Milo stated, "And the injury on your back is most likely the cause for additional discomfort."

"How would you know?" the doctor asked crossing his arms watching Milo curiously.

"The way you walk suggests a major injury on your back, as well as the discomfort of the jacket," Milo answered.

"Ok then. Tell me, Milo. True or false. The greater the dampening of the system, the quicker it loses energy to its surroundings," the doctor asked.

"False," Milo answered.

"What is non-coding DNA?"

"DNA that doesn't code for a protein."

"Sixty five thousand nine hundred and eighty three times five?"

"Three hundred and twenty nine thousand nine hundred and fifteen."

"How do you travel faster than light?" the doctor smiled arrogantly thinking there was no way that Milo could answer that question.

"By opening a quantum tunnel with an FTL factor of thirty six point seven recurring," Milo answered almost instantly. The doctor stared at the boy before laughing it off.

"More like thirty six point seven six seven recurring," the doctor said before turning towards the board, walking towards it before turning back to Milo to see what the boy would reply with.

"The calculation is infallible. You are wrong," Milo said watching the doctor. The doctor's eyes widened as the class stared at the two of them, some covering their mouths in surprise.

"I am not wrong," the doctor said taken aback by the reply.

"Yes, you are, sir," Milo said in the monotone tone he had been using.

"Prove it," the doctor replied holding up a marker and indicating the board. Milo stood and walked over to the board and immediately began writing down equations, filling the board fairly quickly, circling thirty seven point seven recurring. The doctor laughed and looked at the calculation.

"I can see how you got that answer," the doctor said, "But you made a mistake, right here." The doctor pointed to a part towards the beginning, "You rounded way too early in the calculation, you should have kept up to thirty seven places, but you just did thirty six. It threw off the whole calculation." Milo looked at the part he indicated. He stared for a few moments before he nodded.

"I see," Milo said before walking over to his seat and watching the doctor for additional detail, his eyes seeming to conceal everything, but he did not look very well either way. Milo acted fine, and so the doctor decided he would leave it be, because he did after all just prove the boy wrong. And the doctor hated when he was proved wrong, and Milo might just be like him in that aspect.

"So… Physics," the doctor said clapping his hands, "Let's start from the very beginning…."

Later, the doctor slowly went through the line with his tray in his hand, getting his food from the lunch ladies, one of which looked at him with a look that said she could kill him. The blonde scowled at him and he simply gave her a sympathetic grin before walking off to his own table. It wasn't long before the blonde lunch lady came to wipe down his table.

"Two days," Rose said as she cleaned off the table.

"You missed a spot," the doctor said pointing at a speck of food and Rose rolled her eyes at him, cleaning it off. "And there." He pointed to another spot to which Rose responded with placing a hand on his back and slowly increasing the pressure. "Oi!" the doctor protested, but he couldn't help but grin. "Blame Ricky. He's the one who put us up to this. And he was… I have to admit, correct."

"It's Mickey," Rose corrected, "And you? Admitting he's right?" Rose looked at him disbelievingly.

"Indeed, it's the world coming to an end. Ricky being right," the doctor said with a small laugh, "You have no idea how uncomfortable this outfit is."

"It's nice to see you wearing something other than that jacket," Rose teased.

"Oi, what's wrong with my jacket?" the doctor asked as if offended.

"Nothing, nothing at all," Rose replied.

"Anyways, there was a boy in class this morning, knowledge way past planet Earth. He didn't look very well afterwards," the doctor said getting back to the main topic.

"Is he alright?" Rose asked worried, sitting down next to the doctor.

"He should be fine, though I can't be sure," the doctor answered.

"You didn't check on him?" Rose asked.

"Should I have?" the doctor asked back curiously and Rose shook her head.

"Yeah, you should have," Rose replied looking at his tray, "You eating those chips?"

"Yes, I was, but you can have some if you want, they're a little… odd," the doctor said taking one of them and eating it, as did Rose at the same time.

"I think they're gorgeous. Wish I had school dinners like this," Rose said looking at the doctor with a cute little smile, watching him watching her.

"It's very well behaved, these kids," the doctor noted looking around the room.

"Mmm," Rose responded still looking at him despite him breaking the eye contact to look around the room.

"I was expecting hoodlums. The loud and obnoxious type. But there isn't any here. No hoodie wearing kids disobeying the staff. No card players in the corner; all of them, typical teenagers…" the doctor said as the head dinner lady came over and glared at Rose.

"You are not permitted to leave your station during a sitting," the lady said, and the doctor looked guiltily at Rose for getting her in trouble, but grinning all the same.

"I was just talking to this teacher," Rose explained.

"That's me," the doctor clarified earning him a glare from the lady.

"He doesn't like the chips," Rose said like it was a secret for only the three of them to hear.

"The menu has been specifically designed by the headmaster to improve concentration and performance. Now, get back to work," the lady ordered. Rose sighed standing up as the lady left.

"See? This is me. Dinner lady," Rose sighed unhappy with her job.

"Before you leave, could you get me a crumble?" the doctor asked with a smug grin.

"I'm going to kill you," Rose said walking around the doctor, brushing his back as almost a threat of how easily she could hurt him if she wanted to, as his back was still fairly unhealed, even if the ointment in the TARDIS had helped speed up the healing process. At that moment, a fellow teacher, Mr. Wagner came in and up to one of the doctor's students.

"Melissa. You'll be joining my class for the next period. Milo's failed me, so it's time we moved you up to the top class," Mr. Wagner said before turning towards the larger kid sitting near Melissa, "Kenny, not eating the chips?"

"I'm not allowed," Kenny replied with a sigh.

"Luke. Extra class. Now," Mr. Wagner ordered not really paying attention to Kenny's answer after it was given, as if Kenny no longer existed there after the answer. The doctor watched on with curiosity as the exchange occurred.

Meanwhile, Rose was in the kitchen, cleaning a plate as some of her fellow workers came in with a large barrel, they held with protective gloves. Curious, Rose stopped what she was doing and watched on.

"Careful. Keep it steady. Don't spill a drop. I said, keep it steady. Careful. That's it. Easy now. Steady," the lead dinner lady, Jackson, ordered the others. At that moment, Rose's phone rang. She sighed and answered it.

"What you got?" Rose asked as the ladies went back out to get another barrel.

"Confirmation," Mickey said with a grin, though Rose could not see it, "I just got into army records. Three months ago, massive UFO activity. They logged over forty sightings. Lights in the sky, all of that. I can't get any photos, because then it gets all classified and secret. Keeps locking me out."

"Tell you what, though," Rose said thinking on it for a moment, "Three months ago, turns out all the kitchen staff were replaced. And this lot are weird."

"See? There's definitely something going on," Mickey said, with a hint of excitement that he was right, "I was right to call you home."

"I thought maybe you called me home just, well, just to call me home," Rose admitted.

"Do you think I'd just invent an emergency?" Mickey asked.

"You could've done," Rose replied.

"That's the last thing I'd do," Mickey said as the dinner ladies came back in with a second barrel, "Because every time I see you an emergency just gets in the way." Just then whatever was in the barrel splashed over one of the ladies, who began to scream as the oil hit her skin. The other ladies hurried her into a room.

"I've got to go," Rose said hanging up on Mickey without hearing his reply, looking onto the incident that was going on. The woman looked like she was very hurt, and so Rose began dialing on her phone quickly. "

What're you doing?" Jackson asked.

"Calling an ambulance," Rose replied unsure of why Jackson would be surprised.

"No need. She's quite all right," Jackson replied, and Rose raised an eyebrow, as there was a sound from the room they had brought the woman into, a bright flash of light, and then a scream. Rose looked at Jackson disbelievingly.

"It's fine. She does that," Jackson replied before entering the office and closing the door behind her. Rose stared at the door before examining the oil barrel without touching it, seeing what had happened to the other lady, or enough to know what damage it could cause.

It was a little bit later, the doctor was in the teacher's lounge, talking with a fellow teacher about their students.

"And this began around the time Finch arrived?" the doctor asked his fellow teacher who had been describing the high intelligence levels that had been increasing all over the school.

"Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot, except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that," the teacher explained.

"How is that odd? I've seen loads of people win; won a bit myself," the doctor asked curiously.

"She never played. Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight," the teacher replied causing the doctor to raise an eyebrow at the curiousness of the school. They weren't doing a very good job of keeping it all covered, as it all seemed quite apparent with the strange occurrences. He was surprised none of the apes had thought it odd and investigated, except for Ricky the Idiot.

"Strange world," the doctor said as Mr. Finch entered with a smile and a companion, one the doctor recognized immediately despite the amount she had aged since he had last seen her.

"Excuse me, colleagues. A moment of your time. May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith? Miss Smith is a journalist who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times. I thought it might be useful for her to get a view from the trenches, so to speak. Don't spare my blushes," Mr. Finch announced, but the doctor was more preoccupied with wondering if it could actually be her and not someone else. The doctor slowly took a step towards Sarah Jane as Mr. Finch left. Sarah Jane seemed to notice him and she took a step towards him and smile.

"Hello," Sarah Jane greeted as the doctor grinned, his smile spreading across his face.

"Oh yes, hello," the doctor said as if in a sort of trance, "Hello to you too, Sarah Jane." Just saying her name brought back several memories he hadn't thought about in years.

"And… you are?" Sarah Jane asked. The doctor tried to snap out the sort of trance he was in, but he couldn't do so.

"Me? Oh… I, er, am Smith," the doctor said piecing together his answer, "John Smith."

"John Smith. I used to know a man who went by that name," Sarah Jane said looking at the doctor with a curious look as if she were about to recognize him.

"It is a very common name," the doctor replied hoping she would recognize him, and yet not wanting her to do so at the same time.

"He was a very uncommon person," Sarah Jane said studying the doctor carefully as if trying to place two pieces together that wouldn't fit, but would if she just turned one on its side, "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too… no, it's fantastic. Extremely fantastic, Sarah Jane," the doctor said, still in his trance, watching her carefully and seeing her trying to piece things together, but unable to, as she did not have all the information.

"So…" Sarah Jane said trying to stop studying him as she was, but there was something in the back of her mind that could see him wearing that bloody scarf, maybe his eyes. They were different, but there was something so familiar about them. "Have you worked here long?"

"No, no. It's my second day," the doctor answered as his jacket seemed to get uncomfortable again. As soon as he could go back to the TARDIS, he would change into _his_ jacket.

"Oh, you're new, then. So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum? So many children getting ill. Doesn't that strike you as odd?" Sarah Jane asked, which caused the doctor's smile to grow, if that were even possible.

"You don't seem like you're doing just a profile," the doctor said, thinking of how like Sarah Jane it was for her to come here. And fantastic that Mickey the Idiot, wait… Ricky the Idiot had brought them in on a case where he could see her again.

"Well, there is no harm in doing a little investigating while I'm here," Sarah Jane replied, smiling widely, but still unable to piece what it was about this John Smith that made her think about the doctor. That smile almost seemed crazy enough… but no, he was probably dead, or regenerated and there wouldn't be any of these similarities still left. This man looked completely different, except the look hidden behind his eyes that seemed like John Smith was trying to hide consciously, or unconsciously.

"No, not at all. Good for you, Sarah Jane," the doctor said. Sarah began to move away, and the doctor watched her as she left. "Good for you, Sarah Jane Smith. Fantastic."

It was later that night, when the doctor, Rose and Mickey entered the school, the doctor wearing his leather jacket thanks to his insistence on changing into it. The doctor gave the order to split up as to cover more ground while he went towards the TARDIS, which was parked in a supply closet. He kept hoping that perhaps Sarah Jane might have the same idea as them, but his brain kept telling him it was not likely to happen, no matter how much he could hope, not because of Sarah Jane, because she would do so, but because of the unlikely occurrence of them actually meeting up once more. He turned a corner, seeing Sarah Jane's back as she entered the supply closet. The doctor smiled widely, before he made it fade, standing where she would see him when she would come out. And soon she did, looking away from him, staring at the TARDIS.

"Hello, Sarah," the doctor said causing her to turn around and see him.

"It's you. Oh God, Doctor…" Sarah Jane said staring at him, "I thought it might be you back in the teacher's lounge. You've regenerated."

"Almost half a dozen times, in fact," the doctor confirmed, "It's been awhile."

"You look incredible," Sarah Jane said.

"No more scarf, too," the doctor commented with a chuckle, "You look fantastic, Sarah."

"I liked that scarf… I got old," Sarah replied chuckling herself, "And still you haven't learned to call me Sarah Jane, you old menace."

"It's too much of a mouthful," the doctor said in defense, "By the time I yell out Sarah Jane if trouble happens, you'll not need the warning."

"It's only one more syllable," Sarah Jane argued.

"Life and death, Sarah," the doctor argued back, which then caused the two to laugh, "Can't seem to stop fighting, even now, can we?"

"Oh it wasn't that bad," Sarah Jane replied, "Just a bit combative occasionally."

"You threatening to leave occasionally too," the doctor teased causing Sarah Jane to laugh.

"It was the only way to get you to see my way," Sarah Jane replied before she sighed, "So, what brings you here?"

"Well, UFO sighting, school gets record results. I couldn't resist. What about you?" the doctor asked.

"The same. I thought you'd died. I waited for you and you didn't come back, and I thought you must have died," Sarah Jane said taking a step towards the doctor.

"Everyone else died," the doctor stated, his grin fading quickly.

"What do you mean?" Sarah Jane asked.

"All of them, gone. Time Lords, Daleks. They are all gone," the doctor explained watching her carefully, his grin not even trying to return at the moment.

"I can't believe it's you," Sarah Jane said not taking her eyes off of him. Until a scream came from somewhere in the school. "OK, now I can." The doctor grinned, even if the grin did not cover his whole face and the two ran towards the screaming. However, Rose came up from behind them, running towards the scream as well.

"Did you hear that?" Rose asked before seeing Sarah Jane, "Who's she?"

"Rose, this is Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane, Rose," the doctor introduced to them as they ran down the hall. _Oh, great… this should be fun._

"You can tell you are getting older, your assistants are getting younger," Sarah Jane noted.

"I am not his assistant!" Rose insisted.

"No? Get you tiger," Sarah Jane said with a look at the doctor as they spotted Mickey by a closet with rats on the ground next to him.

"Sorry, it was just me," Mickey explained, "I was told to investigate and so… I opened the closet and all these rats fell out."

"You screamed?" the doctor asked incredulously.

"It was dark!" Mickey defended himself, "I was covered in rats!"

"You know, maybe we should take you shopping tomorrow, a new skirt would do nicely, and a pink balloon," the doctor said not believing that he was working with a guy who was scared by a few rats, moving quite close so the two were face to face, "The girl section, of course."

"Hello, can we focus? Does anyone notice anything strange about this? Rats in school?" Rose asked interrupting the two before Mickey could retort, or it could go on for a long time. The doctor backed away, but was glaring at Mickey.

"Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them. Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?" Sarah Jane answered watching Rose and feeling some jealousy towards her, being with the doctor now, even if it wasn't quite what Sarah Jane and her doctor had when she travelled with him, but then again, they had more potential than Sarah Jane and her doctor had, with him being much older than before.

"Excuse me, no one dissects rats in school anymore. They haven't done that for years. Where are you from, the dark ages?" Rose retorted eying Sarah Jane with a feeling that Sarah was going to stir up trouble.

"Anyways," the doctor interrupted before the two could get any farther, "Let's have a look see around Mr. Finch's office. This all started when he arrived, yes?" However, to the doctor's dismay, the fighting between the two women did not stop, starting as they began to head for Mr. Finch's office.

"So, who are you?" Rose asked.

"Sarah Jane Smith. I used to travel with the doctor," Sarah Jane answered.

"Oh? Really? He's never mentioned you," Rose said, "He's mentioned Romana and Ian, but never a Sarah Jane."

"I have too!" the doctor interjected, "All the time. Sarah Jane, don't you remember?"

"Nope. Not ringing any bells. Never," Rose stated with a cocky grin towards Sarah Jane.

"What, not even once? He didn't mention me even once?" Sarah Jane said a bit let down. Mickey laughed and patted the doctor's back hurrying forward with them. The doctor shook his head at the two and went after them. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and opened the door to Mr. Finch's office looking in. He hurried and shut the door looking at the three behind him.

"Well," the doctor said, "The teachers sleep in the building… and they are big bat people." Rose raised an eyebrow, before opening the door and looking in herself, before backing away. As did the other two. The next they knew, they were out of the building, hurrying away from the room full of bats.

"Hold on, I have to get back to the TARDIS," the doctor said, "Rose has some oil I need to analyze." Rose nodded pulling out the little jar of oil from the kitchens.

"Oh, no, just come with me, I can help you with that," Sarah Jane said taking the doctor's hand and pulling him towards the car in the parking lot. Sarah opened the back of the car and lifted a piece of fabric, revealing a cubic robotic dog in the back.

"You're kidding me," the doctor said slowly walking up to the end, before scratching behind the dog's ear, "K-9, the little chess master."

"Why does it look disco?" Rose asked unimpressed.

"Oi! This was cutting edge in the year 5000. He's programmed with some of the most sophisticated programs, and can beat me in chess," the doctor said looking at Rose with a beaming smile, before turning back to the tin dog, "What happened to him?"

"I don't know. One day, just nothing," Sarah Jane replied. The doctor scratched behind his ear and sighed.

"Poor K-9," the doctor cooed to the dog, "What did the evil lady do to you?"

"Evil?" Sarah Jane asked raising an eyebrow.

"Just for K-9, you know how dogs can be," the doctor said in defense with a beaming smile, "Come on, let's get him fixed up." The doctor placed his hands under the tin dog and picked it up. Sarah Jane nodded watching the doctor as the group headed towards the café. Rose did not look amused, but the doctor did not notice it at all; he was preoccupied by the tin dog. The doctor set the dog onto a table in the café, near the front, while Rose went to order some fries.

"You didn't drop me off in Croydon," Sarah Jane said quickly, as the doctor began working on the dog.

"You're kidding me!" the doctor replied, his smile not faltering, "Where'd you come out at?"

"Aberdeen," Sarah Jane informed him.

"That can't be right... are you sure it wasn't Croydon and you didn't recognize it?" the doctor asked, placing two wires together and moving on.

"Positive," Sarah Jane laughed.

"Well, at least was Aberdeen by Croydon?" the doctor asked, but before he could get an answer, the touch of a couple other wires activated the robot.

"Greetings, Master," K-9 said in his robot voice.

"You recognize me!" the doctor explained, scratching behind the dog's ear, as Rose and Mickey came over to see the now fixed robot dog.

"Yes, Master," K-9 replied.

"Good boy! Now, let's get a chess board…" the doctor began, but Sarah Jane snapped him out of it by interrupting him.

"The oil," Sarah Jane said quickly and Rose pulled out a cylinder with the light green oil inside. The doctor took a bit of the oil, placing it on the red nose.

"Tell us what it is," the doctor ordered with a happy and anticipating smile.

"Analyzing," K-9 said, "Krillitane oil."

"Krillitane oil?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Krillitanes… hmmm… interesting," the doctor said before happily patting the dog's head, "Good job, K-9!"

"What are…? Krillitanes?" Mickey asked. The doctor looked over at Mickey with a look Mickey had grown accustomed to receiving from this doctor.

"Krillitanes are a composite race. Just like when you conquer other cultures, you assimilate their culture and ideals," the doctor explained quickly, "However, the Krillitanes assimilate physical traits as well."

"So if they conquered some people with wings…" Rose noted.

"Exactly. They would get a pair of wings. Last time I saw them they looked just like us, but they had really long necks," the doctor answered with a nod.

"At least now we know what we are dealing with," Sarah Jane noted.

"But, why are they here?" Rose wondered. The doctor looked at Rose for a moment before he looked back at the school.

"The children… It has to be something with them," the doctor answered, walking out of the café watching the school curiously, the team following. The Smiths walked together, with K-9, placing him back in Sarah Jane's car, talking about something as Rose walked by the doctor, who was behind the other two.

"How many of us have there been?" Rose asked.

"I've lived for centuries," the doctor answered quickly turning and looking at her, "There have been other companions, you know of a few already. Ian, Romana, Barbara, Susan, all of them. I haven't talked of Sarah Jane because it hurts to think of how I have lost her as well."

"Were you and her…?" Rose began, trailing off.

"We were great friends. I was at a place in my life where I believed that I could not… love anyone," the doctor answered watching her, her gaze meeting his.

"And now?" Rose asked.

"I… You can spend your whole life with me, but I cannot spend my whole life with you," the doctor said.

"Doctor…" Rose whispered, but the doctor continued.

"I have to go on living, without you," the doctor continued, "Alone. It's the curse of the Time Lords."

"That's why you…" Rose began, but was interrupted as a bat person flew towards the group, who all ducked. The bat simply flew passed them, as a sort of warning. "It didn't even touch us…"

"A warning," Mickey suggested.

"Yes, a warning," the doctor confirmed, before hurrying towards the building to get the TARDIS.

Later that night, Sarah Jane had convinced the doctor to relocate the TARDIS to her backyard and spend the night at her place. While Rose was not happy with the plan, the doctor assured her he would still sleep in the TARDIS. Mickey had decided to take up the sofa in Sarah Jane's house, and Sarah had of course, had her own bed to sleep in.

Before going to bed, the doctor and Sarah Jane spent several hours talking to each other, with K-9 at their side. The doctor even managed to get in a few games of chess with K-9. He lost all of the matches. Rose laughed at the doctor when K-9 would give an estimation to his defeat, and she moved K-9's pieces for him, as Sarah watched and talked about getting home from Aberdeen, and a few adventures with the Brigadier. The doctor asked how he was, and she informed him he was well last time they had talked, but it had been years since.

"I'll make sure to pop in and check on him at some point," the doctor said, as Rose yawned, "I think it's time for sleep."

"Didn't realize you slept," Sarah joked.

"I do, just not often," the doctor replied with a laugh, before standing up from the floor, still in his leather jacket at this point (because Rose hadn't tried to make him take it off once their school work was done, probably because of her jealousy towards Sarah Jane, and did not want Sarah to see him without his jacket or jumper). The doctor's back was still in pain, but that was expected from such a terrible injury as he had. It was much better than it began with, but that wasn't saying much.

"Good night, Sarah," the doctor said, before heading towards her back door.

"Good night, Doctor," Sarah Jane replied, watching Rose follow the doctor to the TARDIS as Mickey snored on her couch. She sighed and went to her bed.

"Off, now," Rose ordered once they got into the TARDIS. The doctor laughed, taking off his jacket and his jumper, revealing his back still covered with a large scab that wasn't as thick as it was before. Due to the doctor's high pain tolerance, it did not hurt as it would a human, but it still hurt. Rose picked up the ointment from the TARDIS console and dabbed a bit on her hands, before spreading it over his back.

The doctor suppressed a moan of relief as it was spread, as he was able to do most times, and closed his eyes as he felt the cool gel against his injured back, her hand on his back spreading the sweet relief. When she was finished, just moments later, she smiled at him, and he smiled back at her. He offered his hand, and she took it. The two walked down the halls of the TARDIS to his – no, their room. The doctor laid on the bed, on his stomach, and Rose quickly changed into a pajama bottom and a tank top, before slipping in next to the doctor, snuggling up next to his cold body.

"_The defense are breaking down sir!" __Tivlarotradar, or as the doctor called him Tiv, called to the doctor firing the gun at the oncoming Dalek forces. _

"_We can't let them take the front," the doctor stated, "Pull back. Regroup. We have to get organized. How the hell did they hide so many?" The doctor fired the gun in his hand, destroying a Dalek in front of him. _

"_Into the Citadel!" Tiv called to the troops telepathically so the enemy could not hear, but their fellow Time Lords could. The doctor turned to run, but stopped as he heard the laser shot from a Dalek, turning planning on destroying the Dalek, but instead seeing Tiv on the ground behind him. The doctor fired at the Dalek, running over to Tiv. _

"_Doctor," Tiv coughed, blood coming from his mouth. _

"_Quiet, we'll get you to the medics-" the doctor began, but was cut off. _

"_Make sure that my wife, that she… she knows I love her. And… I wish I could watch my daughter grow up," Tiv requested. _

"_You tell her yourself and raise your daughter," the doctor ordered, his confidence quivering, "We'll get you healed right up." The doctor picked Tiv up, with some difficulty, as Tiv began to laugh softly, before coughing up a bit more blood. _

"_I'm on my last regeneration," Tiv said, "I'm not going to make it." _

"_Tiv," the doctor said softly, running from the Dalek forces behind him, with his troops retreating with him, but some staying behind to distract the Daleks to allow them to escape. _

"_It's ok, Doctor. I guess this is what I get. Marrying a human," Tiv laughed, "Probably why they assigned me here, the Hell Hole of the war, the Western Front. Probably going to lose it now…" It wasn't really the Western Front, but the doctor knew Tiv was comparing this position to that front in Earth's World War II. The doctor smiled looking at Tiv's face, the color slowly draining from his face. _

"_Alia is adopted, you know. Tiffany said that it would be safer that way, so those senators don't try to take her away," Tiv explained, "I've never seen a more beautiful baby girl. Her first world was Dada, I remember how happy I was. Then her rolling all over the floor…" _

"_Save your strength, Tiv," the doctor ordered, stumbling on the unsteady ground, turning towards the enemy behind them, running backwards as he fired at the Daleks behind him, still holding Tiv, his gun held by his hand, while Tiv was held by his arm. The nearby Dalek exploded, stopping in its tracks. _

"_End this war, Doctor," Tiv requested, "Just end it. Ok? You promise?" _

"_I will, of course. That's what we are fighting for, the end of this war," the doctor replied. _

"_At any cost. If this war continues… everything will die, everywhere. Please… protect my daughter," Tiv said looking into the doctor's eyes. He swallowed, turning back around, and running straight forward again. _

"_I promise," the doctor replied with a nod. _

"_Thank yo-" Tiv began, but he trailed off, falling limp in the doctor's arms. The doctor clenched his teeth. He would have turned around to fight the Daleks with all the force and strategy he had in his body, but he kept running, not because he was a coward, but because he couldn't leave Tiv on the battlefield. He finally made it to safety, where the Dalek jamming signal did not reach, and he was teleported up to a vessel in the sky, which was safely hidden from the Dalek ships. The doctor hurried through the ship and finally set Tiv down in the morgue with other casualties. He closed Tiv's eyes before he hurried back to the transport room. _

"_Let me go back," the doctor demanded. _

"_I can't," the teleporter chief informed the doctor. _

"_I don't care; do it," the doctor replied firmly._

"_Rasillon will have my head for it," he explained, "We're about to leave." _

"_Just tell Rasillon that I forced you to," the doctor ordered, "There are still troops down there. I will not leave them down there." The teleporter operator nodded, pressing a few buttons, and the doctor appeared on the battlefield once more. _

"_Gallifreyans!" the doctor announced in the telepathic signal between the troops still here, "If you do as I say, this will come out as a victory for Gallifrey. Pull back, and regroup. We will fight them here. We will win. Now here's the plan…" _

The doctor awoke, sweat on his forehead, looking around curiously. Rose looked at him worried, and he looked at her before trying to shrug it off.

"It was nothing," the doctor lied, "Nothing to worry about."

"You kept shouting about the Daleks, and someone named Tiv," Rose stated.

"I did?" the doctor asked, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your sleep."

"It's fine really. Would you like to talk about it?" Rose asked.

"I- no, it's fine. Just… a memory from the Time War," the doctor explained with a sigh.

"Were you close to Tiv?" Rose asked.

"Not at all. I barely knew him. Which is why it was terrible. He died in my arms, yet I knew so little about him," the doctor said quietly, "I can tell you more, later; we need sleep. Big day tomorrow."

"All right," Rose sighed, as the two laid back down. Rose soon went back to sleep, but the doctor could not seem to get back to sleep, the face of the young Time Lord etched in his eyes. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the young innocent eyes of the young man. He went through his remaining twelve lives in a matter of a month. He had a family and friends; he was too young to die. The doctor stared at the ceiling, unable to get back to sleep.

It was the next morning, before class had started. The doctor was back in the uncomfortable outfit he had to wear to appear 'acceptable' by the school's standards. The whole team was walking up to the school together, taking Sarah Jane's car, instead of the TARDIS, because it was too noticeable, as Sarah had put it.

"Rose and Sarah, you go to the Maths room. Crack open those computers, I need to see the hardware inside. Here, you might need this," the doctor said holding out his sonic screwdriver. Rose held out her hand to take it, but the doctor handed it to Sarah Jane. "Ricky, surveillance. I want you outside," the doctor ordered.

"Here, take these you can keep K9 company," Sarah Jane offered, giving Mickey here keys.

"Make sure to leave a crack in the window," the doctor reminded him, the two women and the doctor walking towards the school.

"He doesn't need air, he's a tin dog!" Mickey shouted back at them leaving, taking a couple steps backwards towards the car.

"For you, not the dog," the doctor replied, with a grin, Rose laughing a bit, and Sarah Jane smiling at it.

"Where are you going?" Rose asked the doctor.

"Finch," the doctor answered, and Rose nodded. The two woman broke off from him and went to the Maths room as he had ordered before. The doctor waited by the door, and looked up at the headmaster, Mr. Finch, whose gaze met his. The two exchanged a volley of unspoken words which ended in the request to talk in private. The headmaster entered a pool room, the doctor not far behind.

"Who are you?" the doctor asked.

"My name is Brother Lassa. And you?" Finch answered.

"The Doctor. How long ago did the Krillitane get wings?" the doctor continued, letting him know that he knew of their people already.

"It's been our form for nearly ten generations now. Our ancestors invaded Bessan. The people there had some rather lovely wings. They made a million widows in one day. Just imagine," Finch explained with a smile.

"So you mask your true appearances," the doctor said, "In order to appear human. For what?"

"I'll let you figure it out… What I am more interested in is you. The last of the Time Lords. They were a pompous race, afraid of change, but you. You are different, Doctor. We have heard stories of you," Finch informed the doctor.

"Then you know that I will stop you," the doctor replied, "If you don't stop now."

"You can try," Finch said, glaring at the doctor. The doctor nodded.

"I will," the doctor said before leaving the pool room. Finch chuckled to himself before leaving the pool room himself.

The doctor knew he was getting close to the Maths rooms, as he began hearing two familiar voices just a bit down the hall. But it didn't seem like they were making any progress.

"Real living werewolf," Rose's voice asserted.

"The Loch Ness Monster!" Sarah Jane said, trying to top her. The doctor stopped at the door and listened in on the two fighting, wondering what they were going to say, and thinking that it was very odd for the two of them to be fighting. He was sure they would be great friends.

"Seriously?" Rose asked before laughing, "Listen to us. It's like me and my mate Shireen. The only time we fell out was over a man, and we're arguing over the Doctor. With you, did he do that thing where he'd explain something at like, ninety miles per hour, and you'd go, what? And he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt?" The doctor leaned against the door to hear what they were saying better.

"All the time. Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?" came Sarah's voice, and the doctor continued to lean further in, not thinking that Sarah had at least noticed that much. Then again, that regeneration of him was not as secretive as he was now, though a fair bit of secret was kept… just not as much.

"Yeah! Yeah, he does. I'm like, do you two want to be alone?" Rose laughed. The doctor leaned just a bit further pressed against the door, when he fell through the open door and flew into the room. He stumbled into the room, but did not fall. Rose and Sarah Jane looked at him and burst into laughter.

"What?" the doctor asked in his North accent, unsure of why it was so funny, "Do I have something on my face?" This just made the two laugh harder. "I need to know what is inside these." The doctor gestured to the computers, but the two simply continued to laugh. "I'm serious!" The doctor watched the two woman laughing crossing his arms. "Oi! You two!" However, they still didn't reply, the two laughing so hard they had to bend over. "I'll just do it myself." The doctor walked over and snatched the sonic screwdriver from them, going over to the box as the two calmed down.

"Sorry," Rose apologized as the doctor picked up a box, looping the wires around his neck and scanning it with his screwdriver.

"As long as it doesn't get us all killed, it'll be fine," the doctor answered, "If I can just… shift. this." The doctor gritted his teeth in frustration. "It won't work."

"But I thought the sonic screwdriver could open anything!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. However, over the speakers came a voice before the doctor could reply.

"All pupils to class immediately. And would all members of staff congregate in the staff room," the voice announced, causing the doctor to seem a bit more panicky.

"They're moving up their plans, before we can stop them," the doctor stated, "And the screwdriver can't open a deadlock." The doctor was beginning to become more frustrated, trying to find out what the Krillitane were planning. He sighed, trying to calm himself down, and he was successful. Suddenly a program with a green spinning cube and symbols appeared on the screen.

"Look," Rose said pointing at the screen.

"You wanted the program, there it is," Sarah Jane said. The doctor looked at the screen and stared.

"Fantastic," the doctor said softly, "They can't possibly…"

"What?" Rose asked.

"The Skasis Paradigm," the doctor explained turning to look at the two ladies, "The God Maker. If one were to crack that equation… they could do anything. The universe would be like clay for them to mold in their hands."

"What? And they are using the children to crack it? Why not their own people?" Rose asked.

"This equation is far more than mathematics and science. You have to have imagination," the doctor explained quickly, "The oil!" He hit his head like he was stupid and he just realized something, as he did just realize it. "It speeds up their computation skills. That's why the kids are so clever! They've been feeding the oil to them on the chips!"

"But I've been eating the chips," Rose pointed out.

"What's fifty nine times thirty five?" the doctor asked.

"Two thousand and sixty five," Rose answered automatically, before covering her mouth, "Oh, my God." The doctor looked back at the screen, before looking back at Rose and Sarah Jane. A clap came from the door and the three all averted their view to the door where Finch was standing and clapping softly.

"Time for a lesson, I see," Finch said with a smile on his face, "You see, once we crack this Paradigm, the universe will be ours to mold."

"It may be just me, but I don't think a universe in the image of Mr. Finch would look so great," the doctor replied stepping towards the Krillitane.

"You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old order? Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good," Mr. Finch suggested.

"You? Good? You think I'm a fool?" the doctor asked anger seeping through.

"No, of course not! But you… you, Doctor, could join us. Think of all the good you could do," Mr. Finch said tempting the doctor.

"Don't listen to him," Sarah interjected.

"And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age, and never die. Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us," Mr. Finch offered. The doctor gazed at Mr. Finch, considering the offer.

"I-I could… I could save everyone. I could bring them all back," the doctor looked at Sarah and Rose, "I don't have to lose you..." the doctor added quickly, "Either of you. I could… bring back your doctor, Sarah, and save Romana…"

"Yes," Mr. Finch confirmed, thinking he was winning the doctor over.

"Everyone could live happily." The doctor looked at the two. Rose seemed unsure of whether he should go ahead and do it, but Sarah, with her years of wisdom after losing her doctor, had something to say about it.

"No. The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship, everything has its time. And everything ends," Sarah asserted. The doctor locked eyes with her, before smiling at her. He picked up a nearby chair throwing it at the screen with the symbols and spinning cube.

"Out!" the doctor ordered, and the three ran from the room. A loud crash came from the entrance to the school, not long before they passed it. Mickey had run the car through the door, and a kid, Kenny, the doctor remembered, was with him, as well as K-9.

"You hurt her car, Ricky," the doctor said, continuing as Mickey and Kenny ran with them, into the cafeteria, closing the doors behind them.

"Had to get in somehow," Mickey replied with a shrug just as the bat people broke into the cafeteria.

"Are they my teachers?" Kenny asked as the bat people came for them.

"Sorry," the doctor answered picking up a seat to hit the bats with as the others attempted to fight them off as well.

"Suggest you engage running mode, mistress," K-9 informed them.

"Come on," the doctor ordered, gesturing a side door, and the team of two woman, one man, and one kid followed his orders. "Hold them off, K-9!"

"Affirmative, master. Maximum defense mode," K-9 stated and began shooting with a laser from his nose. The team hurried through the door, which the doctor sealed with his screwdriver and a pole just in case.

"Forget the shooty dog thing," they heard Finch's voice say, as the five ran down the hall and hid in the Physics room.

"The oil," the doctor stated looking at the four others, "The oil, that's the key. They've changed so often even their own oil is dangerous to them! We need some… a lot. How much is there in the kitchens, Rose?"

"Barrels," Rose answered quickly.

"That's where we need to go," the doctor said. However, at that moment clawing came to the door and the doctor looked at it, trying to figure out how to distract them long enough. "Mickey-" the doctor began.

"You said my name!" Mickey pointed out.

"You need to get the children out and unplugged," the doctor ordered, "Everyone else will go to the kitchens."

"How do we stop bats?" Rose asked. The group seemed not to know the answer, but Kenny walked over to the fire alarm and pulled it. The doctor looked at Kenny.

"Fantastic!" the doctor said, "Come on." They opened the door and ran, Mickey running to get the kids out while the others headed for the kitchen. As they passed the cafeteria, K-9 joined the group, Mickey and Kenny now split from them.

"Good boy!" the doctor said happily as K-9 joined them. They made it to the kitchens and the doctor tried sonicking a barrel. "It's deadlocked! I can't get in." The doctor let out a sigh of frustration.

"The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser, but my batteries are failing," k-9 informed the doctor. The doctor looked at the dog, knowing what that would mean already. He bit his lower lip, looking towards the two ladies.

"Everyone out," the doctor ordered, "K-9, you stay with me." The doctor began using his screwdriver on K-9, and at that time Mickey was getting the kids out of the school.

"Capacity for only one shot, Master. For maximum impact, I must be stationed directly beside the vat," K-9 informed the doctor. Although he already knew it, he wanted to make sure that his hypothesis was correct.

"But you'll be trapped inside," the doctor noted.

"That is correct," K-9 replied.

"Is there any other way?" the doctor asked.

"No alternative possible, Master," K-9 answered.

"Goodbye, old friend."

"Goodbye, Master."

"You good dog."

"Affirmative."

The doctor took one last look at the tin dog before running out of the room, out the back door where Sarah Jane was waiting.

"Where's K-9?" Sarah asked and the doctor simply took her away from the door without saying anything. "No!" Sarah tried to get passed him, before she resigned herself. "We can't just leave him behind!" The doctor rushed her away, far enough, until… BOOM! The school blew its top off.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," the doctor said, as she hugged him, looking at the school, very sad about losing her dog. Rose and Mickey were by them as the kids began to cheer for the kid, Kenny who had helped them blow up the school.

"It's all right. He was just a daft metal dog. It's fine, really," Sarah said, trying to hold back the tears. The doctor pat her back as the two looked at the school, before the doctor led her away. Mickey went to get her car, and Rose followed a bit behind the two.

It was much later, when the doctor was in the TARDIS, preparing to leave, when he opened the door seeing Sarah Jane outside. The doctor gestured the door, as a sort of affirmation that she could go inside. She smiled, and entered the TARDIS, where she looked around with a smile. Mickey and Rose were both inside the TARDIS, Mickey sitting on the railing, while Rose was leaning against the railing near where Mickey was sitting.

"You've redecorated," Sarah Jane noted.

"I have. It's the coral desktop," the doctor replied with a laugh, "Do you like it?"

"I… I preferred it how it was; it was much brighter with the white… but it will do," Sarah Jane commented.

"I love it," Rose said walking up to the doctor and Sarah with a smile.

"Hey, you what's forty seven times three hundred and sixty nine?" Sarah Jane asked with a sly smile.

"No idea. It's gone now. The oil's faded," Rose answered with a small laugh.

"But you're still clever. More than a match for him," Sarah Jane replied gesturing towards the doctor.

"You could come with us," Rose suggested. Sarah seemed to consider it for a moment, before she shook her head.

"I can't. Time I stopped waiting for him," Sarah Jane sighed with a smile, "I have a much bigger adventure ahead of me, here. On Earth." The doctor seemed a bit deflated but smiled and nodded.

"I'll come and see you sometime; I promise, this time," the doctor said with a smile.

"But… what about Mickey?" Sarah Jane asked, "You should have at least one Smith on board." Mickey smiled.

"I would like that," Mickey said, "I mean, I don't want to be just the tin dog waiting around for the next emergency to call you back home on." The doctor glared at Mickey for a moment, before Sarah Jane smiled and replied.

"Sarah Jane Smith for a Mickey Smith," Sarah Jane laughed, "What do you say?" The doctor looked at Sarah Jane and smiled.

"Fine, Ricky can join us," the doctor sighed. Mickey smiled widely at this, but Rose did not seem too very happy.

"Rose… is that ok?" Mickey asked.

"Oh yeah, great. Fine. Perfect," Rose said, obviously lying, causing the doctor to frown. He was sure she would want him on board, because they weren't… right? And anyways, she needed someone who wouldn't have to live for hundreds of years without her. At least, that's how he viewed it at the moment. But that didn't make him love her any less.

"I guess I should be going," Sarah sighed, and made her way towards the door.

"What do I do? Do I stay with him?" Rose asked walking up to her, where the doctor couldn't hear her.

"Yes. Some things are worth getting your heart broken for. Find me, if you need to, one day. Find me," Sarah Jane said before exiting, and the doctor followed her out.

"You know, I never thanked you for coming with before," the doctor stated.

"You? Thanking me?" Sarah laughed, "That doesn't happen every day."

"I don't get to see you every day," the doctor replied, "I enjoyed your company, very much."

"As did I," Sarah said with a smile.

"Something to tell your grandkids, our travels are," the doctor pointed out.

"Oh, they would be someone else's grandchildren by now," Sarah replied with a sigh.

"Oh… that's right… I meant to ask, but… were there any… you know?" the doctor wondered.

"You know, there was this one guy," Sarah said with a teasing smile, "I travelled with him for a while, but he was a tough act to follow." The doctor smiled back at her, almost guiltily. "Don't you go apologizing. That wouldn't be like you either. I wouldn't have traded that time for anything else in the world."

"I wouldn't either, Sarah," the doctor said, before wrapping his arms around her and hugging her. She hugged him back. It felt nice to hold her again, a blast from the past. The past he had nearly forgotten. The past where he had not killed all of his people. The past where he was just having fun and acting childish occasionally. He had forgotten who he had once been, but she had reminded him.

"Good-bye, Doctor," Sarah Jane said.

"It's not really good-bye… I'll see you at some point," the doctor noted.

"Please, just… say it this time," Sarah asked. The doctor nodded slightly before he released the hug and looked at her.

"Good-bye, Sarah," the doctor said with a bitter sweet smile. He left her and went into the TARDIS with a smile. The doctor went over to the console and began hitting some of the buttons as the engine started up.

"Where to next?" the doctor asked standing next to the console.

"Surprise me," Rose said walking up to the console with the doctor, Mickey watching the two interact, "But not until we finish our chips."

"That is right, we should," the doctor replied with a smile close to Rose, before remembering Mickey and backing up and clearing his throat, "If you would get them, I could program our next destination and then eat them."

"Yeah… I will," Rose said a bit deflated and looked towards Mickey with a forced smile, before heading towards the kitchen of the TARDIS to get their chips they had from before this last mission was announced by a rude buzzing phone and a Mickey on the other end.

"Don't change things just because I'm here. As long as she is happy, I'm happy. That's all that I want," Mickey informed the doctor.

"You really love her," the doctor said looking at the man.

"Yeah, I do," Mickey replied, "And you better not hurt her, or I'll have something to say about it." The doctor simply chuckled and smiled at Mickey.

"You are a good guy, Mickey," the doctor said looking at the console.

"Doctor?" Mickey asked almost concerned.

"And you better not tell anyone I said that," the doctor threatened looking at him seriously before turning back to the console once more, "I won't try to steal your Rose away."

"You already have, whether you know it or not, Doctor. I see the way she looks at you, and the way you look at her," Mickey replied seriously taking a step towards the doctor, "Don't let me get in the way."

"Of what?" the doctor asked, knowing full well what Mickey meant, but kept trying to tell himself that he couldn't, and Mickey was going to be the one she spent the rest of her life with, eventually getting bored of him, despite his desire for her to be with him forever.

However, before Mickey could reply, Rose came bouncing in with two boxes of chips from the future and another planet and handed a box to the doctor. "Hey you," Rose said after handing Mickey a plate with chips from both boxes, gesturing the doctor, "Shirt off. Your back is still not fully healed."

"Your back?" Mickey asked raising an eyebrow.

"Long story," the doctor sighed, taking off the uncomfortable jacket he had only worn because his other jacket wasn't allowed at the school, but stopped when it reached his jumper, "Can it wait until I set the TARDIS down? We'll be in here for a bit afterwards anyways."

"Fine," Rose conceded but she pointed her finger at the doctor, "Just this once, mister."


	7. The Girl in the Fireplace

**Sorry for the wait. Here's the next chapter! I was ok with the original episode,  
but I really hated that the doctor didn't seem to care much about Rose's feelings,  
so you can expect it better on that level at least! **

**Also, I will thank all of those who have followed, favorited, or  
reviewed this story, it always makes my day to get an  
email that says people like reading this story. **

_He had been trying to avoid going back to Gallifrey, but his TARDIS kept ending up there, without him doing it. He was sure the TARDIS, that old witch of a machine, had pulled him back home. He had recently received a message from the Time Lords that the next Time War had erupted and they could use every soldier available. The long haired doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and looked at the large room, consisting of a small council at the front. He sighed, finally deciding the TARDIS would not let him run until this was all over. It was almost like she wanted him to fight in this war, which meant that it was very important._

"_Where's Romana?" the doctor demanded, "She's still president, right?"_

"_Lady President Romanadvoratrelundar has resigned her position as president," one of the Time Lords, whom he recognized as __Aleengemrothdarlyee-something or another, which he preferred to shorten to Aleen, __explained, "Lord Rassilon had taken her place, Doctor." The doctor raised an eyebrow. _

"_Why did she do that?" the doctor wondered. _

"_We don't know. All we know is that she left Gallifrey in a TARDIS and a note informing us of this. She is as slippery as you, Doctor, and we cannot find her. We suspect she is on Earth somewhere," Aleen explained quickly, before the middle man stood up and smiled at the doctor. _

"_Welcome home, Theta," the man greeted the doctor. The doctor sighed and shook his head, as a smile grew on his face looking at the time lord. _

"_Don't tell me that you're the Lord Rassilon, Phi," the doctor said with a small laugh. _

"_Indeed, it is me," the time lord said, walking closer to the doctor, who had now halted a few feet from the seats. _

"_You've regenerated since last time," the doctor commented, "Getting old, we are." _

"_We are still young, Theta," Rassilon laughed, "It's been awhile; I suspect, your 6__th__ body?" _

"_8__th__," the doctor answered, "You?"_

"_9__th__," Rassilon replied, "Burning through our regenerations, the pair of us…. However, down to business." The doctor was still smiling, but there was a definite air of seriousness. "You've been briefed on the war, yes?" _

"_I have," the doctor confirmed, "The Daleks and various other enemies have joined forces against Gallifrey, correct?" _

"_You are right, Doctor," Rassilon said with a nod, "You're assignment is already set up for you. We have decided that you will lead a small team by Lake Abyos. We have trapped the Daleks near a large underground base." _

"_So you want me to attack the base?" the doctor asked. _

"_No, just keep the Daleks back. There is a dampening barrier so they can't escape, but attacking that place would be a fool's mission," Rassilon replied, "They just need to be held back until we figure how to penetrate the shields they have up around the facility. You'll defend the perimeter with your troops." _

"_How many are there?" the doctor asked, a bit peeved at such a simple and boring assignment he was receiving. _

"_We estimate around a hundred, but we cannot be certain," Rassilon answered. _

"_And I'm just supposed to wait around and make sure none of them escape until you learn how to penetrate their defenses," the doctor said to make sure he had everything clear._

"_Exactly," Rassilon replied. _

"_That's it?" the doctor asked still a bit let down on the boringness of the assignment. After all, he was THE doctor, the infamous one, who had saved them so many times before and Academy friend to the Lord President. Then again, he did run away from being the president several times before, and just Gallifrey in general._

"_Doctor," Rassilon said placing a hand on his shoulder and watching his eyes intently, "This is of the utmost concern. If you fail, and the Daleks escape, then we will have to pull some forces from Skaro and set us back a couple of centuries. You have stepped into the middle of a war; you should have come here the instant the message was sent, but you didn't. This is your assignment."_

"_I understand," the doctor sighed and turned around, "What of my TARDIS?"_

"_It will be replaced with a new –" Rassilon began, but the doctor turned back around towards Rassilon and looked at him wide eyed with a glare that would kill if looks could kill. _

"_I will not allow it," the doctor said. _

"_But it is old…" Rassilon pointed out, "It belongs in a museum, Doctor." _

"She_ is mine. You will not throw her away, you will not destroy her, you will not harm her in any way, or I will leave your army the instant you attempt to do anything to hurt her," the doctor asserted firmly, turning towards his TARDIS and placing a hand on the exterior of the police box. _

"_Fine. She will be placed in the repair shop, and repaired until your posting at Abyos is finished, and then you can have her back for your off-world missions," Rassilon replied with a small nod. _

"_Good. If she tells me you hurt her…" the doctor threatened. _

"_We understand. Now, your post awaits. A transport will bring you there; it's waiting just outside of the building," Rassilon said with a small chuckle. _

"_I'll be leaving now," the doctor said removing his hand from his TARDIS, before whispering, "I'll be back soon, I promise." A grin played on his lips as he began to leave the council room, closing the door. He stood by the door for a few moments, hearing the council began to talk, barely able to hear them, but he could make out most of what they said. _

"_I told you we shouldn't have brought him!" Aleen's voice asserted, "He'll betray us if he finds out." _

"_We need him; we need time," Rassilon replied calmly in his deep commanding voice, "As long as he isn't told, we will be fine." _

"_Lord President," another Time Lord spoke up, "He is resourceful; he might just piece it together." _

"_How? Theta may be intelligent, but no one besides those here could ever find out; everyone else is dead," Rassilon replied, "We've already discussed this. We will assign him assignments that he will most likely die in, and jobs that are so far detached from the main Dalek fleet. He will prove useful, until he dies in this war." _

"_How can we be sure he will die?" one asked. _

"_He will. No one will survive in the very end, that we do not chose," Rassilon replied. The conversation ended there. The doctor strode forward, knowing a council member was about to exit and headed towards his assignment with the new knowledge of them hiding something more from him. They were always secretive, but from how they talked about it, it seemed more serious than anything else really, and he would make sure to find out what it was, and how it could be bad enough for him to betray them. _

The doctor opened his eyes and looked into the confused set of eyes in front of him. He removed his hands from the side of her face and turned around, back to the console of the TARDIS. Rose, the owner of the set of eyes he looked into processed the memory as fast as she could, thinking on it. Mickey entered the control room with a sandwich in his hand.

"Did I miss something?" Mickey asked taking a bite of the sandwich seeing Rose's face.

"No, nothing," Rose lied looking at the doctor, whose jumper and jacket were off and sitting on one of the bars near the door (Mickey's reaction to his injury was one of complete shock, and his face was priceless, needless to say), "How did you look before?"

"Back then? Oh, I had a bit of a Victorian taste, and long brown hair," the doctor answered with a smile looking back.

"Back when? Before you met Rose and me?" Mickey asked, confused.

"Exactly," the doctor answered, "She wanted to see a bit of my life before, so I showed her. Much easier to express that way then through speech. A lot is lost in translation."

"Cool," Mickey said with a smile, taking another bite, "So, where are we going? You finally done with repairs?" They had been suspended in the Time Vortex since their departure as the doctor went through repairs that had to be done before they landed, due to some malfunction they had taking off.

"Nearly," the doctor answered, pulling out his sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket and opening a panel in the floor, and pulling a couple wires out pointing the screwdriver in the hole that the panel had covered. Rose smiled at the doctor.

"I never knew you were telepathic like that," Rose noted, walking up to him, almost ignoring Mickey eating his sandwich nearby.

"You didn't? Well, now you know," the doctor replied, flashing her a smile before returning to his work.

"You never fail to surprise me. Next I know, you'll be able to breathe underwater," Rose joked.

"I can," the doctor said looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You're kidding me," Rose said dumbfounded staring at the doctor with disbelief. The doctor laughed, and looked back at his work.

"I'm just kidding," the doctor replied, "Your face was priceless." However, Mickey began choking, and coughing, having a bit of the sandwich fly from his mouth.

"Sorry," Mickey coughed out, as Rose hurried to his side, and looked at him worried.

"You ok?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, just fine," Mickey replied his eyes watering. Rose rubbed his back with her hand and looked towards the doctor who stood up, clapping his hand, and placing the screwdriver back in his jacket pocket.

"Ready to land now," the doctor announced, "As long as Ricky doesn't puke on her, it would mess with her controls and might land us in a supernova."

"Well, you said you would bring me to one eventually," Rose noted, "And its Mickey, Doctor."

"Force of habit," the doctor waved off and smiled at the two, hitting a lever, landing the TARDIS, "Let's go see where we are." Rose grabbed Mickey's arm, smiling at him before pulling him to the door. The doctor was not far behind, placing on his jumper and his jacket on and following the other two. He looked around and sniffed the air.

"A barbeque?" the doctor asked.

"Look at me! My first go I get a spaceship," Mickey said looking out a nearby window at outer space beyond the hull.

"This is odd," the doctor said examining the computer.

"What is it, Doctor?" Rose asked as he clicked a few buttons on the console.

"We're on a spaceship, but where is the crew?" the doctor asked.

"Well, we're in deep space. They didn't just nip out for a quick fag," Rose noted.

"No life signs," the doctor said before leaning closer to the controls, "There is something really weird going on here." Rose seemed excited, but Mickey seemed even more excited than she did.

"Look over here," Mickey pointed out, pointing to a fireplace.

"The engines are going on full speed; it's putting out enough energy to punch a hole in the universe," the doctor said ignoring Mickey, "But…"

"We're not moving," Rose finished looking out the window, "Are the engines broken?"

"They seem to be in working order," the doctor replied, "I'll have to take a look at –"

"Rose! Doctor!" Mickey said getting their attention, "If we're on a spaceship, why is there a fireplace?" The two looked where Mickey was pointing and the doctor raised an eyebrow.

"We're on a spaceship, where the power is turned all the way up, with no crew, and you're worried about a fireplace," the doctor said crossing his arms, before shaking his head and walking over to the fireplace.

"Be nice," Rose told the doctor.

"I am!" the doctor insisted, as he began to look at the fireplace closer. He knocked the wood, and smelled it curiously. "Fantastic!"

"What?" Rose asked, Mickey a bit put off of being put down and it turning out interesting indeed.

"Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace," the doctor squatting closer to the ground and looked through the fire, "Double sided. There's another room through there."

"That's impossible," Mickey pointed out.

"That's the outer hull," Rose finished.

The doctor smiled and waved through the fireplace. "Hello," the doctor said in a chipper mood, "I'm the doctor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor," a girl on the other side of the fireplace replied. Rose and Mickey approached the doctor curiously. "I'm Reinette."

"Where are you?" the doctor asked innocently, with his grin sprawled across his face.

"In my bedroom," Reinette replied tilting her head, "Why are you in my fireplace?"

"It's nice and warm here; don't you agree?" the doctor replied happily.

"Yes, but it's warm out," Reinette pointed out and the doctor laughed.

"Oh, it is? I couldn't tell," the doctor replied, "Tell me, Reinette. Where is your room?"

"In my house," Reinette replied with a happy giggle.

"And your house is in…?" the doctor asked laughing at her reply.

"Paris, of course," Reinette answered.

"Ah, yes, of course, Paris. And… ah, what year is it?" the doctor asked.

"Seven hundred and twenty seven," Reinette answered promptly. Rose looked through the fireplace seeing the girl. "Who are you?" Reinette asked.

"I'm Rose Tyler," Rose replied completely confused by this fireplace.

"Wha – Oh, she's my friend; she likes the warmth in here as well," the doctor said looking back at her with that grin on his face that Rose loved so much, and couldn't help but smile in response. The doctor returned to Reinette.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too Rose Tyler," Reinette responded with a smile.

"Well, this has been fun. Stay inside in August. It won't be very pretty then," the doctor said, before standing up and looking towards Mickey and Rose (she had stood up the same time as the doctor had). "I think we've found out hole."

"What hole?" Mickey asked.

"I told you, this ship is generating enough power to tear a hole in the universe. Meet our hole," the doctor said gesturing the fireplace.

"But, this isn't the 18th century, we're ahead of it… so it is like a portal through time and space?" Mickey asked, "Like the TARDIS?"

"Essentially. Difference is this one is not as reliable, and you can't control when it will come out," the doctor replied and inspected the fireplace once more. "Ah ha!" The doctor smiled and turned towards them. "I'll be back. Don't wander off." The two looked confused, but the doctor shot them a smile, before lifting a portion of the fireplace and the fireplace spun. Rose dropped to the ground and looked through the fireplace.

"Are you ok, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Just fine," the doctor said squatting down and looking at Rose, "Don't wander off." Before Rose could respond, he stood back up and approached the bed. Rose stood up and looked at Mickey, before beginning to walk off.

"What are you doing?" Mickey asked.

"Wandering off," Rose replied with a laugh, continuing her walk off.

"He said not to," Mickey noted following her.

"But he's not here now," Rose said with a smile.

"We could get hurt," Mickey replied.

"By what? There are no life signs on the ship, so as long as we're careful, we'll be fine," Rose said continuing walking around the ship, to the TARDIS and beyond. Meanwhile, the doctor entered the young French girl's room walking with that bit of swagger he always had in his step. The young girl now in her bed awoke, sitting up and looking at him, as the doctor approached her.

"Stay there," the doctor ordered, "Don't worry, I'm just having a look around."

"Doctor, you're here," Reinette said quietly doing as he said.

"I am. We were just talking in the fireplace, I thought to pay a visit and have a chat," the doctor replied.

"That was weeks ago," Reinette noted.

"It was? Must be something wrong with it. I'll have a talk with the maintenance team and get it fixed," the doctor replied with his grin all over his face.

"What are you doing here?" Reinette asked. The doctor looked at her.

"Your clock, it's broken," the doctor pointed out looking at her mantle and returning his gaze, the smile slightly faded.

"So?" Reinette asked. The doctor looked around and leaned near her.

"Where's the ticking coming from?" the doctor whispered in her ear, before retreating back to a normal standing stance farther away from her, "Don't worry. Don't be scared."

"I'm not. I have you," Reinette replied, "You'll protect me. What is it?"

"Hmmmm…" the doctor looked slightly up thinking and listening to the sound, "About six feet tall. Like a man. The resonance suggests… some sort of clockwork man. That's what I would guess… stay on your bed, alright?' Reinette nodded, as the doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and bent down to the bottom of the bed and scanned the underside of her bed, the sonic screwdriver getting knocked out of his hand and across the room. He quickly popped up taking a step back. "Don't look behind you." The doctor placed a hand on her head and looked into her eyes before looking at the robot with a white mask with designs on it and this era French attire. "They're scanning your head."

"Why would they do that?" Reinette asked.

"What could be so important to blow a hole in space and time that is locked inside this girl's head?" the doctor wondered looking at the robot.

"Why are you scanning my head?" Reinette asked turning towards the robot, "Do you want me?"

"Not yet. You are incomplete," the robot replied.

"Incomplete? For what?" the doctor asked, but the robot did not respond, "Tell me you big clock man! If you answer her, you can answer me!" The robot moved from around the bed and towards the doctor.

"Careful Monsieur," Reinette cautioned the doctor. The robot extended a blade and the doctor watched the blade, backing up a bit. He bent over for a second, picking up his sonic screwdriver, as the robot made a slash at the doctor, which he dodged.

"Don't worry; I can take care of myself," the doctor replied, "It's a… nightmare." The doctor dodged another slash of the blade, nicking his jacket. "Oi! Watch it!" He smiled at Reinette as if he wasn't just upset about the nick on the jacket. "Everyone has nightmares."

"Even monsters under the bed?" Reinette asked.

"Oh yes. Especially monsters from under the bed," the doctor answered.

"What could they possibly be afraid of?" Reinette wondered. The doctor's smile was gone at the moment, as the robot made another attempt hitting the fire place getting the blade stuck.

"Who else?" the doctor replied, before his smile sprouted once more covering his face. , "Me." He activated the fireplace and it spun around. On the other side, the robot's blade was freed, just as Mickey and Rose ran around the corner, laughing. The doctor tried to hold off the slicing blade of the robot, as Rose noticed, and jumped into action. She quickly picked up a nearby fire extinguisher and used it on the robot, causing it to freeze.

"Don't tell me you two wandered," the doctor said looking at the two, after dusting his hands off.

"Then… uh, we didn't wander off," Rose replied with a small smile on her face, appearing like a kid worried like she was going to get a talking to.

"Let's take a look at this thing," the doctor said straight faced and lifted his hand to take off the mask.

"Why was it dressed like that?" Mickey wondered.

"Field trip to France," the doctor answered simply and took off the mask revealing a beautiful piece of clockwork robot head. "Fantastic! You are a fine specimen. Oh, beauty. It is too bad I am going to have to take you apart." He help up the screwdriver and began to take it apart when it moved, no longer frozen, grabbing the doctor's wrist to stop him, and touched, with its other hand its wrist, disappearing. "Of course. I should have known. Short range transport. Could be still on board. Anyways… be back in a bit." The doctor turned around towards the fireplace, before looking at the two.

"Don't run off, again," the doctor ordered, "It's not safe." He activated the fireplace and spun into France. Rose looked at Mickey and the two exchanged looks.

Meanwhile the doctor arrived in daylight in the room with the fireplace once more and looked around as Rose hurried and picked up another fire extinguisher in the future, as Mickey did as she did and the two began to run off again as a voice came from the fireplace.

"I said, don't wander off you two," the doctor said sternly through the fire place, "I mean it." The two exchanged looks and looked down at the floor, replacing the fire extinguishers. "Good." Rose bent down and looked at the doctor.

"Hurry, ok? I don't want to sit here for hours," Rose sighed.

"I promise," the doctor replied, standing up and turning around to see a woman behind him.

"Oh… hello," the doctor said with a goofy grin on his face, "I'm looking for Reinette. I wanted to see how she was doing." The woman crossed her arms and looked at him with a questioning smile.

"Reinette! The carriage is waiting," a voice called from out of the room.

"In a minute, Mother," the woman called back.

"Wait… you're Reinette…. My, you've grown," the doctor said looking Reinette from bottom to top examining just how much she had changed.

"And you do not appear to have aged a single day. That is tremendously impolite of you," Reinette replied.

"Right… well… I should go. My friends are waiting on me, and..." the doctor said rubbing the back of his neck for a moment, "Your mother would not be happy if she found you in here with a strange man."

"You? Strange? I have known you since I was seven years old," Reinette replied raising an eyebrow, uncrossing her arms.

"Er… well, that is true, I suppose. I came the quick route. Only have known you for a few minutes," the doctor said with a dry laugh.

"You seem to be flesh and blood, but this is absurd. Reason suggests that you cannot be real," Reinette said.

"Oh, you never want to listen to reason," the doctor replied, his smile slowly growing on his face.

"Your mother is getting restless," another voice called causing Reinette to sigh in frustration.

"Just a moment!" Reinette called back before returning to the doctor, "So many questions, and so little time." The doctor was about to turn around, when Reinette grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him into a kiss. The doctor's eyes widened, and the kiss ended with Reinette rushing from the room. He stood there in shock, nearly frozen in the same position.

"Mademoiselle Poisson!" a voice called as a servant entered the room, "Who the hell are you?"

"Poisson? Reinette Poisson? No! No, no, no, no, no way. Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan, fantastic gardener!" the doctor exclaimed hurrying towards the fireplace.

"I asked; who the hell are you?" the servant repeated sternly.

"Nobody," the doctor answered as the fireplace was activated and he spun around to the spaceship. Rose and Mickey were there waiting for him. He smiled and nodded once quickly. "Now it's time to explore. Where did you go last time?"

"Just a few corridors down," Rose explained.

"You'll never believe what we saw," Mickey replied.

"An eye, as a camera," Rose said happily with a smile.

"It was creepy," Mickey commented.

"Just like the rats?" the doctor teased without a hint of joking, even though he was a bit. "Come on, let's explore." The three walked down the corridors, the doctor seeing the camera they were talking about and found a heart in the circuits, which made Mickey freak out, and Rose look grossed out. The doctor on the other hand was intrigued. However, in the middle of their search, a horse found their way to following them.

"Why are you following me?" the doctor asked the horse, before pulling out a bag, "I see, a jelly baby, you want one." He pulled out a candy and showed it to the horse. "It won't make you sick, they settle in almost all stomachs." The horse ate the candy and neighed.

"We're not keeping the horse," Rose noted.

"But we're getting so close," the doctor replied petting the horse, "Plus, I let you keep Ricky."

"Mickey," Rose corrected him, "and we don't need a horse."

"We don't need a Mickey," the doctor replied as they walked down the hall, and the doctor finding a set of doors open. "Is this where you came from?" The horse stood there in response. "Oh good." The doctor walked through the doors the two of them following him through, ending up outside near a courtyard looking area. The doctor stretched.

"Nice to get some fresh air," the doctor said happily, before he immediately fell to the ground behind a stone fence. The doctor pulled Rose down with him, and Mickey peered forward.

"What?" Rose asked trying to get back up but the doctor held her down.

"Reinette is right over there. Can't let her see us or things could get awkward," the doctor said, "She doesn't know Ricky so it doesn't matter if he is there."

"Mickey," Rose corrected the doctor once more, "Did something happen between you two?"

"No, nothing. Nothing at all," the doctor replied a little too quickly.

"Doctor…" Rose said in a hushed threat.

"She kissed me, all right?" the doctor admitted, "Let's get out of here." He began crawling towards the door and entered it, standing back up.

"Ok, so what is a horse doing on a space ship?" Mickey asked once the three of them were back on the spaceship with the horse.

"What's pre-revolutionary France doing on a space ship?" the doctor retorted.

"She kissed you?" Rose asked out of the blue, and the doctor looked at her with a bit of a frown.

"Well, yeah. I mean I couldn't stop it," the doctor answered.

"She's known you for an hour or so, and she's already in love with you?" Rose asked.

"Well, not necessarily in love with me. She just… likes me, that's all," the doctor said.

"Oi! You two," Mickey interrupted, "Can you explain to me what is going on?"

"Apparently everyone is kissing the doctor," Rose said grumpily. Ignoring her grump status at the moment, the doctor looked towards Mickey, before walking down the corridor.

"Windows of time," the doctor explained as the other two followed him. He stopped by a window in one of the walls, where Reinette stepped into the room beyond, apparently not seeing them despite their ability to see her. "Gateways into history revolving around the life of one individual in particular. Madame de Pompadour." The doctor watched Reinette adjusting her hair. "I'm going to find out why. Stay here."

The doctor pushed the doorway open and entered the room. Rose watched closely and listened as the doctor and Reinette conversed together.

"Doctor!" Reinette said surprised to see him, "What are you doing here?" Rose soon came forward through the mirror with a fire extinguisher.

"Stand back," Rose ordered, and the doctor turned around to see a clock work masked robot teleported into the room behind him, hiding out of the way so Reinette didn't see it either. Rose attacked it with the fire extinguisher freezing it.

"Thank you, Rose," the doctor said with a smile on his face, "Let's ask the culprits themselves then. Why are you following this woman?" There was no answer.

"Answer him," Reinette ordered, "Answer anything you are asked."

"She is compatible," the robot answered.

"Good work, Reinette," the doctor said with his smile growing and turning back to the robot with his hands behind his back, "Compatible with what, exactly?"

"She is compatible," the robot answered.

"What do you need her for?" the doctor said his smile slowly fading as the robot began to get on his nerves.

"We do not have the parts," the robot answered.

"For the damage on the ship?" the doctor asked.

"Affirmative," the robot said.

"What about the crew, what happened to them?" the doctor asked.

"We did not have the parts," the robot replied.

"But that has nothing to do with the crew. What happened to them?" the doctor pressed.

"We did not have the parts," the robot repeated.

"Oh no. Don't tell me you… you used the crew for parts," the doctor trailed off his face showing the dawning of terrible new information that he came up with.

"What?" Mickey asked.

"The eye, the heart. They used the crew… to repair the ship," Rose said her eyes wide.

"Barbeque, that's what the smell was… human flesh," the doctor said watching the robot closely, "It was just doing as it was programmed to. Repair the ship and take parts from wherever they could be found… But why did you come to 18th century France?"

"We lack one more part," the robot answered.

"Why haven't you taken it?" the doctor asked.

"She is incomplete," the robot answered. The doctor turned towards Reinette and then back to the robot.

"Oh so she's the last part. You keep opening windows up and checking to see if she's done yet," the doctor said, "Which is the age thing, I see."

"Why her?" Rose asked curiously.

"We are the same," the robot replied.

"We are _not _the same," Reinette said angrily.

"We are the same," the robot repeated.

"Out! Get out! We are not the same!" Reinette ordered fairly loudly.

"No!" the doctor said reaching for the robot but it had already teleported away. He sighed and looked towards Rose and Mickey, the horse not far behind. "Take Mickey and the horse; go after it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does. I'll follow soon." He flashed a smile at Rose. "I trust you." Rose studied him, thinking of how he would be alone with this woman who he already had kissed, even if she initiated it. She nodded.

"I trust you too," Rose replied before taking Mickey by the shoulder and pulling back into the ship. The doctor smiled and turned back to Reinette.

"I am going to finally find out why those things are coming after you." The doctor held up his hands in front of her face. "Trust me, all right?"

"Of course, Doctor," Reinette said with a curt nod. The doctor placed his hands the side of her head and closed his eyes.

"If there is anything you don't want me to see imagine a door closing and I won't peek… Memories might come back up as well," the doctor instructed.

"You can see anything," Reinette replied, "I will keep no secrets from you." The doctor was very arrogant about the fact Reinette obviously liked him and was falling for him, because it was a very nice ego boost, but also was slightly uncomfortable knowing Rose would be a bit upset about all of it, and already was.

"Ok…" the doctor responded, "Now… What are they scanning for?" The two stood for a few moments in silence.

"So alone… Always alone even while a child," Reinette said and the doctor was confused.

"What? Your childhood is just happy; not alone not ever, really," the doctor stated confused.

"A door once opened can be stepped through in either direction," Reinette replied, "My Lonely Angel; My Doctor."

"Erm, yeah," the doctor said taking his hands off her head, looking at her with a straight face, "How old are you?"

"How pertinent a question so early in the conversation; how promising," Reinette said with a chuckle.

"Not my question," the doctor said, "Theirs. You're twenty-three and that means you are not done. Why?"

"I do not know," Reinette replied, "However, your friends they can wait, can't they?"

"I suppose for a little while," the doctor said looking back not seeing Rose anymore, her having followed his orders.

"Dance with me," Reinette said holding out her hand.

"Oh no, I can't," the doctor replied backing up a little bit not taking her hand.

"The world doesn't end if the doctor dances, does it?" Reinette asked.

"It's not that. I mean…" the doctor sighed, "It's the night you dance with the king, make him fall in love with you, I can't possibly…"

"It's about Rose, isn't it?" Reinette asked with a small smile.

"No, of course not!" the doctor insisted.

"I see how you look at her. Even when I was a child, I could tell. I wanted to have someone look at me that way, and you were the only one I could even imagine having that look. Not one has ever looked at me like that. You really do care for her a lot, Doctor. Would you at least… give me one dance?" Reinette asked. The doctor studied her for a moment.

"Ok," the doctor answered with a small nod offering his hand to her this time, which she took and the two walked from the room.

Meanwhile, having tried to follow one of the clockwork men, Rose and Mickey had been captured just moments after leaving. Of course, they were knocked out, for who knows how long, and the doctor had yet to come rescue them. Rose was beginning to come around, snapping into reality as Mickey nearly shouted.

"Where are we? Where's the doctor?" Mickey asked loudly seeing the clockwork men around him.

"Calm down, Mickey," Rose said calmly on the outside but panicking on the inside, "He'll save us. I trust him." The clockwork men soon came to her and looked at her through those ugly masks. "You're in for a world of hurt, you know that." One of the clockwork men had a blade come from its arm, causing Rose's heart to leap before she calmed herself down a bit, the panic beginning to set in. "You know, the doctor is going to come and he'll –" A loud sound came from down the corridor nearby. "He'll stop you," she raised her voice over the loud sound which almost sounded like singing to her, "You know the Daleks? You know what they called him? The –" The doctor came flying into the door.

"Hello!" the doctor said loudly waving at the machines and walking up to Rose, a goblet in his hand full of what was presumably wine.

"Oh, look what the cat dragged in, the oncoming storm!" Rose scoffed not believing the doctor had made his entrance in such a way.

"Oh, look who sounds like her mother," the doctor replied mocking her and laughed out loud.

"Where've you been?" Rose asked frustrated.

"In France!" the doctor said with a laugh walking away from Rose and towards the clockwork man with the blade near Rose, "Did you know how the French party? They didn't even know what a banana was! Rose, always bring a banana to a party, remember that. Invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early, I think." The doctor approached the clockwork man a bit closer. "You lot, I love you guys. You know why?" He leaned in by where an ear would be if they were not robots and whispered. "You're so thick!" He leaned back away with a laugh and flung himself across the room towards Mickey. "They've been scanning Madame de Pompadour's milometer! You know why?" He paused and when no one answered he continued on, bringing him close to Rose and telling her with a grin on his face. "To see how old she is! Because for who knows what reason when she's thirty-seven years old, she'll be compatible. You know why thirty-seven?" No one answered again. "Because this ship is thirty-seven years old! But why Madame de Pompadour."

"She is compatible," the robot said mechanically.

"But why?" the doctor asked approaching the robot cocking his head to the side, "Why her?"

"She is compatible," the robot repeated. The doctor giggled. Rose looked at him incredulously. The doctor giggling? That just wasn't Doctor-like. He must be extremely drunk.

"You probably think this is wine too," the doctor said indicating his goblet, before his smile and drunken look vanished in an instant, taking the robot's mask off and pouring whatever was in the liquid over the robot's head, shutting it down and the others as well. "Come on," the doctor said quickly freeing Rose then Mickey. He looked at the robot which was shut down and smirked. "Seems they are very thick." Rose punched him in the arm before he could do anything about it quickly, and quite hard.

"Oi! What was that for?" the doctor asked rubbing the spot she had hit.

"You were gone for hours!" Rose answered, "Not even a word we heard from you. We could have been dead, if you were just a moment later."

"But I wasn't," the doctor said, smirking, stopping rubbing his arm and placed his hands in his pockets, "It all turned out for the better." Rose was about to reply to that, however, an alarm went off. "They still have one out there." The robots stood back up and the doctor tried to dive to hit a switch, but the robots already hit a button on their arms and teleported away.

"What does that mean?" Mickey asked a bit panicked.

"They've found the right window. Come on, we've got to hurry," the doctor said quickly taking Rose's hand and grabbing Mickey's arm to lead the two of them away.

"They're going to come for you," Rose said looking at the woman, Reinette quickly.

"Why can't he tell me this himself?" Reinette asked standing up seeing Rose.

"There isn't time. Sometime after your thirty-seventh birthday, they will come again," Rose explained quickly.

"That is years away, how is there no time?" Reinette wondered watching Rose curiously.

"It isn't the same for us. What is happening in your future, is happening right now for us," Rose answered biting her lower lip, "It's like… There is a ship in the future, where there are windows into your life. A different points, all happening at the same time."

"So he can just step into my life, without any time passing, as I travel along the slow path," Reinette said to confirm; Rose nodded. "That is very rude of him. To never age a single day while I wither away and die."

"Tell me about it," Rose said with a bit of a chuckle, and seeing her confused look she added, "He lives much longer than you or I. Over 900 years old now, he is."

"But it is worth it… he is worth it all, even the monsters, for an angel like him," Reinette replied and Rose nodded once more. "So what am I supposed to do when they arrive?"

"Keep them talking until he can get there," Rose answered slowly backing towards a time window.

"Rose!" Mickey's voice came and walked through the window, "He's found it; right under our noses! Come on."

"I have to go," Rose said backing towards the time window still.

"If he's in there," Reinette said hurrying after her going through the time window and looking around.

"Doctor, Doctor. If you can hear me, they are here. You promised you would come," Reinette's voice said through the ship.

"That's my voice," Reinette said, Rose looking nervously at her, "That is my future."

"Yeah," Rose replied.

"Then I must take the slow path," Reinette affirmed. She looked at Rose and smiled lightly. "Take care of him." Mickey laughed.

"No one can take care of that man," Mickey said. Reinette laughed softly to herself.

"Until then," Reinette said turning around and walking out of the ship. The two closed the window and they both ran towards the window where the doctor was standing by.

"No entrance," the doctor said pressing a couple of buttons on the console before crossing his arms.

"Could you just smash through?" Rose asked.

"It would close them all off," the doctor answered looking at Rose with a very serious look, the horse walking up next to her, "I would not be able to return." Rose watched the doctor.

"What can I do? Can I help?" Mickey asked.

"I might be able to slow down the progression time, but it wouldn't buy us much time," the doctor said, "For that I would need my time displacement modulator, from my room. It's just on the desk, the only thing on there." Mickey nodded and Rose gave him her key, hurrying in the TARDIS.

"Rose," the doctor said slowly.

"You can't slow down time in there, can you?" Rose said with a soft smile walking closer to the doctor who had turned completely towards her in front of the time window.

"No, I can't," the doctor answered.

"You're going to smash through, aren't you?" Rose asked.

"I am," the doctor replied.

"Doctor," Rose said softly, the doctor uncrossing his arms and taking a step towards her, Rose taking a step towards him.

"Before I go, I want you to know, I do care about you, very much." He pulled out a disk from his pocket. "This will bring you back home. I'll wait for you, alright? I might be a couple hundred years older, but I will come for you. I promise."

"I can't," Rose said shaking her head, "What if you find a way back?"

"Don't wait long for me," the doctor said, "There will be little chance." The doctor handed the disk to her, which she took, the two standing quite close. Rose was beginning to tear up. The doctor wiped a tear off her face with his thumb. He placed a hand on her face, leaning in and placing his lips on hers. She responded, trying to place as much passion and everything she wanted him to know in the kiss. She wrapped her arms around his back, careful not to press too hard and hurt the still somewhat injured back. He placed a hand on her cheek, pulling her closer to him, pressing her body to his, before pulling away. He looked at her once more, before he ran to the horse, getting on the horse.

"I'll wait for you," Rose said looking at him on the horse.

"As I will, for you," the doctor replied before riding ahead through the window, taking one last look back at Rose before the window disappeared. Mickey came running out of the TARDIS with a box shaped object looking around.

"Did he…?" Mickey asked looking at Rose, whose tears are running down her face. He set the box down and hugged her tightly. "He'll be back. He always is."

Meanwhile, the doctor smashed through the glass, on his horse, which he jumped off of, and crossed his arms looking at the robots with a smile.

"Good afternoon, Madame De Pompadour," the doctor said as if he didn't just smash through the now brick wall leaving only the broken mirror as evidence, "Looking younger every day."

"What the hell is going on?" a man, the king of France asked indignantly looking at the doctor.

"This is my lover, the King of France," Reinette introduced with a smile.

"Yeah? Well, I'm a Lord of Time. I'm here to fix your clock problem," the doctor said looking towards the robots once more, forgetting them for a moment. The doctor walked up taking off the robot's mask seeing the clock work underneath the blade being held at his throat. "Forget it. It's over. For you and for me. Talk about seven years of bad luck. Try three thousand," the doctor looked back up at the brick wall before looking back at the clock work man, "The link with the ship is broken. No way back. You don't have the parts. How many ticks left in that clockwork heart, huh? A day? An hour? It's over. Accept that. I'm not winding you up." The robot slowly began to stop ticking and soon fell over, the others following in its lead.

"Are you alright?" the doctor asked turning towards Reinette who was on her knees.

"The better question is, are you?" Reinette asked, standing up watching the doctor's eyes. The doctor placed his hands in his pockets.

"Perfectly fine," the doctor answered with a mouth closed smile. Reinette offered a hand, and the doctor hesitated before taking it. The two left the room with eavesdroppers and entered a little hall and sat on a seat near a window.

"You should have stayed," Reinette said quietly.

"I couldn't have just left you here for them to kill you," the doctor answered.

"Of course not, that wouldn't be you," Reinette said, "But you have her. You gave her up to save me."

"Not forever. She'll go home and spend time with her family, and then I'll show up, 200 years from now," the doctor answered.

"If you can survive that long. I think that you know that you may not survive that long on the slow path, even if you are not human," Reinette replied looking out at the stars.

"I know all their names," the doctor pointed out.

"I saw that, in your head," Reinette replied with a smile holding the doctor's hand tight.

"Yeah, that's right," the doctor said looking at the stars with her.

"What's that one?" Reinette asked pointing at the sky.

"Sirius," the doctor answered, "No life supporting planets, but it does have a twin star, Sirius II." The two fell silent, Reinette's grip on his hand slowly faltering.

"I wish you could stay here on the slow path with me," Reinette said quietly standing up.

"I'm not going anywhere," the doctor replied confused.

"Aren't you?" Reinette asked pulling him along with her, entering her bedroom not far away.

"Reinette…" the doctor began, thinking she was going to try something that he wasn't going to do with her, and he'd have to let her down gently. But then he saw the fireplace. He walked forward, their hands disconnecting and he felt around the fireplace.

"I had it moved here," Reinette explained, "Just in case you were to come back."

"Fantastic!" the doctor exclaimed looking back at her, his big jolly grin spreading across his face, "When you moved it, you disconnected it from the ship, so it wasn't up when the mirror broke. Which means… If I'm very, very, very, very lucky…" He began feeling around the fireplace, finding what he wanted to.

"You can come with me, if you want," the doctor offered turning back around to her.

"I would love to," she replied before she slowly approached, "But I can't. It would not be the best for me. I have a life here." The doctor nodded.

"How about one trip?" the doctor suggested.

"I… no. I appreciate the offer, Doctor, but I must refuse," Reinette replied nearly accepting the offer.

"Good-bye," the doctor said his smile a bit smaller, "I might have to come back, if Rose didn't wait for me."

"She will have waited," Reinette replied waving to him, "Good-bye, My Lonely Angel." He looked back for a moment before he pulled the part on the fireplace, activating it. He spun around to the ship and looked around. He didn't see anyone at first until arms quickly wrapped them around him. Rose had come around the corner, and hugged him on sight before he could even see her coming.

"Doctor!" Rose said quietly, her head nestled on his shoulder.

"How long did you wait?" the doctor asked.

"Nearly five and a half hours," Rose replied pulling back and looking at the doctor's face which was grinning.

"Fantastic. Always wait five and a half hours," the doctor said, as Rose planted a kiss on his cheek. It was then the doctor realized that Mickey was behind her watching them. The two separated, holding each other's hands, and walked to the TARDIS. She handed him the disk before he opened it. He placed it in his pocket.

"So… did we ever find out why it was Madame De Pompadour?" Mickey asked.

"Some mysteries go unanswered," the doctor answered, unlocking the TARDIS and the three stepped in. The doctor placed his other hand in his pocket feeling a note that was not in there before. He pulled it out and saw it was addressed to him from Reinette. Rose let go of his hand and looked at the letter curiously.

The doctor opened it, reading it to himself.

_My Lonely Angel,_

_I know that I was told you would come one more time, and deemed it the time I would give this letter to you. My whole life I have waited for you, and now it is time for me to let you go. You love another; you do not love me. I want you to be happy. Stay with her. Don't leave her alone. Stay happy. _

_Reinette _

The doctor read the letter carefully and slowly folded it back up.

"Reinette?" Mickey asked, sitting on one of the rails around the control console.

"Yeah, she just wrote me a letter to say good-bye," the doctor answered.

"How did she know?" Rose asked.

"She didn't," the doctor replied, biting his lower lip before a smile growing on his face and shoving the letter in his pocket. "Where to next?"


	8. Draglian Desperation

**Sorry for the wait, it's taken awhile to plan this story out. It's another original!  
Hooray! I always loved Mickey and decided to give him another story.**

"Ok, Rose Tyler, let's see if you can get us to Earth," the doctor announced with his signature wide smile on his face, as Rose bounced up to the console, Mickey walking behind her, the two coming from outside of the blue box. Rose smiled at the doctor, her eyes glowing with pride in herself, and hope to do well.

"No help, either, alright?" Rose requested looking at the doctor with a determined look.

"Unless you try to kill us," the doctor replied and Rose laughed softly at it.

"I'll try not to," Rose replied, as Mickey leaned against a railing.

"So, could I learn one of these days?" Mickey asked curiously. The doctor looked away from Rose and towards Mickey looking at him like he had just said something highly offensive.

"Well, Ricky," the doctor began, but Mickey cut him off.

"I thought we were over that, it's Mickey," Mickey interrupted.

"Right, Mickey the Idiot," the doctor said continuing through any arguments that Mickey might make against it, "The TARDIS has a special connection with Rose, which is the only way she can learn how to control her. Unless you want to suck in part of her heart, and have me die to save you from it, then I don't think you can. Either that, or I guess if you were conceived in the TARDIS… but you weren't, so that doesn't matter." Mickey huffed in disappointment.

"I still don't get how you can 'regenerate'," Mickey huffed, thinking it was quite unfair.

"It's a biological trick, I've already explained this to Rose. Normally, I'll change and look completely different, but something was different this time," the doctor explained shaking his head, crossing his arms.

"Rose," Mickey replied, "I think I get it, but it still is weird. So you weren't always this strict… big eared fellow?"

"Oi! My ears are _not _that big!" the doctor protested, but went on, gesturing to Rose, who quickly ran from the console room, returning not long afterwards with a book. She gave it to Mickey, who looked inside seeing pictures of other people. "These people… are you?" Mickey guessed.

"Exactly," the doctor replied. Mickey turned the page and nearly choked when he saw one of the previous regenerations.

"You looked like a scarecrow!" Mickey said with a suppressed laugh.

"You should've heard his voice in that regeneration, it was… very nice," Rose replied smiling, though the doctor wasn't taking too well to being insulted, though smiled at Rose's comment, before staring down Mickey again.

"How would you know?" Mickey asked.

"He has some recordings around the TARDIS," Rose replied.

"Sometimes that's easier than writing it all down," The doctor added with a shrug. Before Mickey could respond, the blue box suddenly shook, sending the doctor, Rose, Mickey, and The Spotter's Guide to The Doctor flying. The doctor quickly got up and ran to the console to see what was wrong.

"Someone's pulling us in," the doctor said.

"From where?" Rose asked confused, "We were just in 18th century England, there aren't any tractor beams, or whatever."

"You're absolutely right, Rose," the doctor replied with a sense of pride, but also frustration at the same time as he began pulling levers and nobs, flying around the console. Mickey stood up, holding onto the rail, in order to not be thrown to the ground again. "But it isn't someone from 18th century England."

"Then who?" Mickey yelled over the crashing and beeping that began to go off in room, flashes of mini-explosions going off near the console.

"I don't know!" the doctor shouted back, "Someone from a different time, that's for sure. They're dragging us through the Time Vortex. It should be impossible!"

"But they're doing it anyways," Mickey said, as the TARDIS jerked again, him barely staying up, the doctor holding onto the console, and Rose holding onto another rail, all managing to stay up despite the violent jerking.

"I can see that," the doctor replied continuing his rapid attempts to do something on the console. However, the console in front of him blew up a little bit, hitting him right in the face, making him lose his grip and fall to the ground. The box jerked again, sending the doctor flying towards the wall.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled, letting go of the rail and running towards the doctor, stumbling a little due to the jerking of the TARDIS. She grabbed a nearby post, and grabbed the doctor's hand. She brought herself up to him, looking at him, seeing what was wrong. The doctor had lost consciousness, which meant they were on their own.

However, at that moment the TARDIS stopped shaking and was completely still. Mickey was still grabbing ahold of the rail, closing his eyes. Rose was kneeling by the doctor, looking at his unconscious and obviously hurt face.

"Doctor," Rose said quietly, checking for his pulse, finding the beat of only one heart working. That didn't help her panic very much. Tears began forming in her eyes, she didn't know how to help. She fetl useless. Not knowing CPR, nor if it would work on Time Lords, she didn't know what else to do. Stuff like this she didn't know much about. Maybe if…

Rose quickly took her hand, slapping it across his face, making a loud sound as it connected. The doctor, jolted up, before placing hand on his heart.

"Only one is working," the doctor stated, "How can you apes survive with just one heart?" He began pounding at his chest. "Have to get… it… working again." Then he stopped and let out a big breath. "There we go. All better now." The doctor looked at Rose's face which showed great relief, and smiled at her. "Shock treatment, good thinking."

"I-I just thought that if Mum was here, that's what she would do," Rose stated a weak smile on her face.

"Yes. She probably would," the doctor replied with a laugh, pushing himself up, with some difficulty. He then offered a hand to Rose, which she took and he helped her up.

"Mickey!" Rose said looking at Mickey still grabbing a hold of the rail, "It's all over."

"Says you," Mickey complained, his voice cracking slightly, "What if we're just in the eye of the storm? What if it happens again?" The doctor ignored him, walking towards the console. He stroked the metal with the tips of his fingers, examining a screen.

"Don't worry, Girl," the doctor whispered, "We're landed now. I'll fix you right up, all right?" Rose walked next to the doctor and placed her hand on his, which he looked at, and then back at the screen.

"Where are we?" Rose asked. The doctor looked at Rose and bit his lower lip. He looked back at Mickey who was just beginning to relax his grip on the rail. Then back at Rose.

"We're in E-Space," the doctor replied looking at the screen.

"E-Space?" Rose asked curiously.

"It's another universe, smaller, and different from our own," the doctor explained.

"Like a-a parallel world?" Mickey asked, finally standing up and dusting himself off, after deciding that it wouldn't jerk like that, at least for now.

"Not quite. It's like an… oblique universe. Near our universe, but the opposite, and similar. Coordinates are negative here, while in our universe they are positive," the doctor explained looking at the screen and studying the stars and space that showed on it.

"You've been here before," Rose more stated than asked.

"I have. I took a companion from here, and left one here before," the doctor replied smiling at Rose, with a smile trying to reassure her, and look confident. "No matter, though. Once the TARDIS is fixed up, I believe I can get out of this place."

"Unless whoever pulled us here, can keep us here," Mickey replied walking over to the two, the doctor, quickly moving his hands to the console once more.

"No sense in waiting around here," the doctor said, before crouching down and opening a panel.

"Shouldn't we see where we've been brought?" Rose asked.

"First we need to be able to escape, if things go wrong, and then we can check outside," the doctor said, getting to work.

"Can I help?" Rose asked.

"Yes, you can. If you would go into my workshop, and get my tool box, that would be much appreciated," the doctor replied with a smile.

"How about me?" Mickey asked.

"You can… erm… hold down this button," the doctor said pointing to a small button, "Just hold it until I tell you to stop."

"Ok," Mickey said, pressing the button and standing there, as Rose came back in.

"Let's get to work," the doctor said and smiled at Rose who nodded, smiling back.

* * *

It was hours later, or what seemed like it. The doctor and Rose had been working on the controls, as Mickey stood to the side pressing the button. The two seemed to have a fairly good time, laughing and making comments, and Mickey seemed to be out of it the whole time. He even muttered, "Talk about third wheel," at one point, which the two didn't catch at all.

"Well, I think she's ready to go now," the doctor finally said, standing and looking at the screen, helping Rose up, as well.

"What about me? And this button?" Mickey asked.

"Oh, yeah," the doctor said looking at Mickey with a guilty look.

"Doctor!" Rose said interrupting the two, pointing down at the console's screen where a face had appeared. It was the face of a man who looked extremely old, much like humans or Time Lords, with bright blue eyes, and wrinkles all over.

"Now that you have fixed up your TARDIS, Doctor," the face said, with a slick voice, "I would love it if you were to come out. You can't leave in it, anyways. However, if you come out, I can allow your companions to leave safely. If not, well…" The TARDIS began shaking again, but this time it seemed more violent, if that were possibly. Mickey, who took his job fairly seriously, managed to keep the button down, holding onto the console for dear life. The doctor looked at the TARDIS screen, the face disappearing reading some of the readouts given to him by the machine.

"He's tearing her apart!" the doctor announced clenching his teeth, "And I can't stop it."

"Yes, dear Doctor, you can," the voice from the face on the screen replied, the man's lips curling into a happy grin, "If you come out. I just want to have a nice little chat with you."

"All right," the doctor replied, the TARDIS still jerking around, "If you promise that my companion can leave in peace."

_Nine_

"Of course," the face said, and instantly the TARDIS stopped rocking around, "Step outside, Doctor." The doctor quickly turned around.

"All right, Mickey, keep your finger on that button," the doctor instructed before turning towards Rose, "Take my sonic, alright? He won't keep his promise, most likely and will try to collect my companion. Mickey cannot come; he can't be found in here, alright? Also, keep this key, don't put it on until later." She nodded and he handed her his screwdriver and a key. The doctor looked towards Mickey and pulled out another key from his pocket.

"If they come, just be quiet," the doctor ordered, placing the key around Mickey's neck, "You are no longer here as far as everyone else is concerned." He turned to leave the TARDIS. "Mickey, ten minutes." Mickey nodded, as if he understood him, though he wasn't quite sure what he meant.

"Doctor," Rose said, but the doctor didn't turn around.

"Yes, Rose Tyler?" The doctor asked, his smile growing on his face, despite not turning back to see her.

"Be careful," Rose requested.

"When am I not?" the doctor asked with a soft laugh before he walked out of the TARDIS. Instantly he found himself surrounded by some sort of robots, obviously robots by the silver metal skin and the joints that were unique robot, or at least usually robot, except a couple of species, but that didn't matter right now, because none of them had silver skin like these robots did.

"Welcome, Doctor!" the face from the console screen said, as a short old man rolled towards him in black electric wheel chair.

"Hmph," the doctor replied, "What do you want?"

"Not even going to ask who I am?" the man shook his head clicking his tongue, then licking his lips.

"I don't care who you are; tell me what you want," the doctor demanded, and the man raised and arm, and the robots grabbed the doctor's arms, and he began to struggled against it.

"My, my, a demanding one," the man laughed, his laugh dry and short, "My name is Tarklatiz, one of the few Draglian left."

_Eight_

"Draglian? I thought they all died in the plague," the doctor said now slightly intrigued by the man.

"Oh, about ten of us survived. Settled elsewhere, kicked me out. They didn't like my idea of artificial intelligence," Tarklatiz replied, "And now I am in my last few days, unless…"

"You regenerate, I understand," the doctor said with a sort of 'ah ha' sort of expression on his face, "And you think I can help you."

"I know you can, Doctor. After all, you are the last of the Time Lords," Tarklatiz cackled in a way that made the doctor raise an eyebrow.

"Exactly how do you plan on doing that?" the doctor asked. Tarklatiz laughed at this comment.

"Oh you," Tarklatiz said controlling his laughter, "Always wanting to know everything. No, you'll find out in due time." Tarklatiz nodded, then raised his hand again, and two robots not holding the doctor walked to the TARDIS door. Another approached the doctor, pulling off the key around his neck, walking over to the door, and unlocking it.

"You said she could go!" the doctor nearly yelled, despite expecting the betrayal and planning for it.

"You shouldn't have trusted me," Tarklatiz replied simply, as Rose was dragged out, kicking and screaming, by the two androids.

"Doctor!" Rose said seeing the doctor and seeing the old man, "What do you want?"

"Your Doctor's lives," Tarklatiz replied.

"He's a Draglian. They stole regenerations from Time Lords," the doctor informed her.

"But… Doctor…" Rose began to protest but he sent her a look that meant she just needed to go along with it, no protest, that he had it under control.

"Don't worry Rose," the doctor said with a small smile, "I'll be fine."

"Right," Tarklatiz noted, "He'll just die soon. No need to worry, young lady." Rose looked quite worried, but something in the doctor's eyes reassured her.

_Seven_

Tarklatiz raised his hand once more, the robots taking Rose away.

"Don't hurt her!" the doctor demanded.

"They won't. It's just a precaution to make sure she doesn't try to save you," Tarklatiz explained, as Rose tried to struggle against the iron grip of the androids.

"Doctor!" Rose called. The doctor turned his head watching her carried around a corner. He then returned his attention to Tarklatiz.

"So your people sent you away, even though there were so few of you left?" the doctor asked with a cold tone.

"Yes. I wanted to implant our consciousness into my androids, but they didn't like that idea. So, I turned to Time Lord hunting again," Tarklatiz explained, "So I could live long enough to finish my inventions, and make my own race of machines, who will conquer those who banished me."

"Artificial Intelligence," the doctor replied with a nod, "How do you know they won't turn on you?"

"They might, but it would mean my job was complete, and they were intelligent enough to carry on without me," Tarklatiz replied, "But that is still centuries off. Their armor and defense systems are not perfect yet, and the formula to their intelligence is still in its early stages."

"Despite the fact you have worked on this for what… 500 years, if you are about to die, of course," the doctor said incredulously.

_Six_

"Yes, I have. Perfection takes time, Doctor," Tarklatiz replied, "And you will be the one to allow me enough time to get that perfection. After all, you are the last Time Lord left." Tarklatiz raised his arm again, and the robots holding the doctor began to carry him forward down a hall.

"A bit eager, are we?" the doctor asked, not even trying to struggle against the robots' grips.

"This body has two more days, I would like to get this over with quickly," Tarklatiz replied, his wheel chair paced exactly with the robots' speed and thus staying just a bit ahead of them. It wasn't long before the group reached a large dome like room, with a single chair in the center.

_Five_

The robots brought the doctor to the chair in the middle of the large dome room and automatic bars of metal wrapped around him, holding him to the chair. He tried to struggle out, but it was impossible. The robots left the dome room, and went down the hallway to wherever they were supposed to be stationed and working at.

"Since I'm about to die," the doctor said. He had to just keep him talking. "Tell me how you tracked my TARDIS."

"That was the trickiest part of the whole thing, Doctor," Tarklatiz replied, his wheel chair rolling around him with a grin on his face, "But once I was able to open a schism in the universe to look into the Time Vortex, I could do it with a simple primitive radar."

"You opened a schism?" the doctor nearly yelled not wanting to believe it.

_Four_

"Yes, I did, very successfully, I might add," Tarklatiz replied enjoying the doctor's reaction.

"You could have destroyed the universe," the doctor said watching Tarklatiz's happy face with almost disgust.

"A necessary risk," Tarklatiz replied. At this the doctor nearly exploded.

"Necessary risk? Every living thing could have died," the doctor said as if Tarklatiz did not understand what that risk meant.

"My androids are my life's work, if that all goes to waste because I couldn't find the last Time Lord, then the universe might as well end. Nothing else is important," Tarklatiz explained, as he rolled away from the doctor.

_Three_

"Enough talking," Tarklatiz said, his wheel chair stopping on a platform and the platform raising slightly, locking the wheels in place. He wasn't able to keep him talking long enough. It would be the end.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mickey was in the TARDIS, having been told to stay there for a while and stay invisible. It had been… he wasn't sure how many minutes since they took Rose…

What was with the key the doctor gave him, anyways? It was like the robots couldn't see him or something when they collected Rose. His finger was beginning to cramp holding the button down for so long. His focus waning, his finger slipped from the button.

"Oh no," Mickey said, pressing the button again, but it was already done. He saw in front of him a sort of transport beam glow, golden in color, and disappear, Rose in front of him. "Wha –?" Mickey began.

"They're going to kill him," Rose said quickly once she realized what happened, "Come on." She took Mickey's arm and pulled him towards the door. Rose peaked out of the door, and saw two machines guarding the door. She took out the key the doctor gave her earlier and placed it around her neck. She slinked out of the door, sliding between the two robots. The two were in the area right in front of the TARDIS, where Rose had been taken. There were three ways. One of them she was taken down. The other two the doctor could be down. Rose pointed down one of the passages, and then at herself and another then at him. Mickey nodded.

The two hurried down their respective paths. Rose ran down her path, down a hallway, not wasting any time to hurry down the hallway. When she reached the end of the hall, she saw a sight that she was not expecting. The doctor was strapped to a chair, in the middle of a huge dome room. Before she could run forward and try to help free him, the whole dome began to turn, starting out slow, but soon picking up speed. He was blocked from Rose's view at times, but when she could see him, golden dust seemed to be coming from his body. And his face, it looked like he was in great pain, but no sound was escaping his mouth, as if it were impossible to do so.

She wanted to yell for him, but she couldn't find her voice. She took a deep breath before she watched the turning dome, with a couple of small openings spinning around in front of her. Rose attempted to jump through once, but she had stopped herself. Another failed attempt, before she calmed herself once more, and watched the doctor through the sometimes open door. She quickly ran through the door, barely getting across, a shoe lace, getting caught, and pulled her foot, before the shoe came off her feet. It hurt, a lot. She couldn't barely walk on it, she found, as she tried to go towards the doctor.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mickey was down his path, finding himself at the end of the hall, a dead end. He cursed softly under his breath before he saw the side of the wall, full of wires and his face lit up. Mickey looked down the hall and saw none of the androids coming. Carefully, he pulled a panel off the wall, next where the exposed wires were, and set it aside. He rubbed his hands together before he began pulling out the wires, two handfuls at a time.

* * *

Rose had managed to get near the doctor, but the air was getting thinner the closer she got, and the air was circulating extremely fast in the center of the dome. She attempted to take the bonds holding the doctor to the chair, but as soon as she touched them, her hands were burned. She looked at the doctor face, and tried to call his name, but her voice had let her. For a moment, the doctor opened his eyes just a crack, seeing her face, before yanking his eyes open, biting his tongue hard enough it bled inside of his mouth. He couldn't even force a smile on his face. Rose wished she could help.

Then, it all stopped. The dome walls slowed to the stop and the gold dust stopped coming from the doctor. The restraints retracted, releasing the doctor. Tarklatiz on the platform above looked down on the scene.

"It wasn't complete!" Tarklatiz yelled, "And you interfered, girl!" Rose ignored Tarklatiz, and began helping the doctor up. He was very weak at the moment, and could barely move himself. She placed an arm of his around her shoulders, and began limping terribly towards the exit as the platform carrying Tarklatiz lowered. Rose and the doctor's escape route was blocked off by the Draglian in the wheel chair. He raised his hand and summoned some of his androids to him, but they didn't arrive quite yet from wherever they were.

"Why him?" Rose asked, keeping weight off of her hurt foot.

"He's the only one in the universe with regeneration energy," Tarklatiz replied with a wicked smile, "This time, I'll have my androids kill you, girl, and everything you've done to save your precious Doctor, will be all for naught."

"Don't… please," the doctor said quietly and slowly looking at Tarklatiz with a begging face.

"It's the only way," Tarklatiz replied, "And you can do nothing to help it. I am not an evil man, but I must do this to survive. I tried to uphold your wish to keep your companion alive, but it cannot be avoided any longer after… _this_." The last part was more of a hiss, which trailed off as something hit him from behind. Tarklatiz's face drooped down and Mickey rose from behind the wheel chair.

"Ready to go?" Mickey said with a huge smile.

"Mickey!" Rose said happily. The doctor smiled lazily at Mickey.

"Good job, Mickey!" the doctor said happily, mustering up all his energy to seem like he was as well as he could be at the moment. He stumbled to give him a quick hug, and did so, managing to keep himself up without Rose for support.

"We better hurry," Mickey said with sudden urgency, "I dunno how long I disabled them for." The doctor nodded, and the two of them used the not injured Mickey for support, as they hurried down the hall towards the TARDIS. They were almost there, when an android took Rose from behind. The two men turned around and saw Rose being restrained.

"I will kill the girl, if you do not return," the android said. The two were slightly confused, as the controller was gone, and where the orders came from was unknown but the doctor figured it was just orders before Tarklatiz had been knocked out.

"Sonic," the doctor said, quickly going forward, pulling the sonic from Rose's pocket, and pointing it at the robot, pressing the button. The android then shut down, letting Rose fall to the floor.

"How'd you…?" Mickey asked.

"Observation of their components. Let's go," the doctor said, walking a step before he stumbled once more. Mickey came to try to help him, but he waved Mickey away. "Get Rose." And so Mickey did as the doctor ordered, helping Rose up, actually carrying her this time, and rushing to get her into the TARDIS, using his key from around his neck to open the blue box's door. He sat her down on one of the benches and hurried out to see the doctor by a nearby console pressing buttons, struggling to stay up, stopping for a moment to regain himself.

"Doctor," Mickey said.

"Go," the doctor ordered, "I'll be there soon, just have to release the grip on the TARDIS."

"He'll just get us again," Mickey replied.

"But we'll be prepared for him then," the doctor answered shining his screwdriver over the console and a spark flew out. The doctor then stumbled towards the blue box, Mickey rushing forward to help him, leading him to the TARDIS. Rose was already by the console, her hurt foot lifted, though she had to walk on it to get there, inside the TARDIS and as soon as they were inside, she pressed a button lifting off the TARDIS.

"Good girl," the doctor said with a smile, supporting himself with the console, and making his way around the console pressing the buttons. However, the TARDIS began shaking again. The doctor quickly read the console screen, and continued around the console, working much slower than he could before.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, falling into the bench and holding onto it to not get thrown across the room, as Mickey mirrored his movement from the last time the jerking took place before he was pressing the button.

"Something is pursuing us," the doctor said, pressing a button and moving the screen so Rose could see. It looked like a huge mechanical bird flying the Time Vortex behind them, grabbing at the box with talons.

"Tarklatiz," Rose said.

"It should be impossible, even with his schism," the doctor said still working, "I'll try to land us, and then we can deal with the bird." He held up his sonic pointing it at the TARDIS console, before tucking it into his jacket pocket again. "I can't work like this." His vision was blurring together, and he felt like he was going to lose consciousness. But he knew he wouldn't lose consciousness due to the reason he was so weak at the moment, but it sure felt like he would.

"Is there anything I can do?" Rose asked.

"I don't believe so," the doctor replied continuing, "This sort of exhaustion won't be cured by sleep, but time… or some sort of shock." Rose smiled.

"I can help with that," Rose said, and slapped him across the face, standing back up, to do so. The doctor smiled after she did that, continuing to work, but his vision was still blurring.

"Not that kind, Rose," the doctor replied with a soft laugh, trying to focus, though talking to Rose did seem to help his focus narrow down to this room, "Slapping doesn't always work."

"Tell that to Mum," Rose said with a smile, "So what sort of shock?"

"I dunno, something nice," the doctor replied his mind getting fuzzy and his thoughts slurring together.

"How about this?" Rose asked, taking the doctor's hand and kissing him softly. The doctor's eyes widened but he relaxed into the kiss, before Rose pulled away all too soon.

"It did help," the doctor said, before he turned towards the console. But it wasn't lasting too long and his vision began blurring slowly again. "I think I can land. But I'll have to disable it before it can pick up the TARDIS. Stay inside. The engine of the TARDIS stopped and the doctor rushed outside of the TARDIS, his sonic pulled out.

However, as soon as he exited, the mechanical bird dived at him, picking him up by his shoulders. The shock hadn't been enough to keep his mind focused enough at the moment, and his sight was almost as bad as it was before, his thoughts beginning to slur together again. He was lifted up high, the bird holding him tight and flying away. He pressed the button on his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the bird's head. The bird was suddenly falling again, the forward momentum sending it forward still, crashing into a tall office window. The doctor was released from the grip of the bird, flying a bit forward by himself into the office, actual physical pain being the result. He forced himself to his feet. And smiled at the figure in front of him, which he could only tell was someone with blonde hair.

"Hello, I'm the doctor," the doctor introduced himself, before he fell over onto the floor unconscious.

* * *

Mickey had taken to the job of mending Rose's foot, managing to wrap the foot up, having a feeling that it was broken, when Rose shoved past him, forcing her way towards the door of the TARDIS.

"He should be back now," Rose said, hopping on one foot to the door, Mickey following, trying to get her to sit down, catching her when she lost her balance as she headed to the door.

"You can't help him that much with your foot like that," Mickey noted. She didn't listen, opening the door to the TARDIS, and hopping out herself, losing her balance, but Mickey catching her again.

"Where is he?" Rose asked hopping a bit more forward, Mickey following close behind. The two observed the skies, seeing no mechanical bird in sight.

"Maybe someone saw where the bird went?" Mickey suggested. The two looked up at the sky, before Mickey began talking to people that were nearby about the bird and perhaps where their leather jacket clad friend was taken. Suddenly a voice came from behind her.

"Well, Sarah, I believe that we are not in 1921," the voice said causing Rose to turn around, falling to her bottom in the process.

"Obviously not," a woman's voice replied, "Why can't you ever get it right?" The man who was previously behind her walked up to her, offering his hand. "Careful there."

"You're…" Rose said softly, taking the man's hand, seeing his bright blue eyes, curly brown hair and that very long scarf.

"The Doctor," the man answered with a smile on his face, throwing an end of his scarf around his back and pulled out a small bag of something from his pocket offering her the bag, "Would you like a jelly baby?"

**I hope you all don't mind a bit of a Doctor clash, but I have a plan to avoid paradoxes and such,  
so... I have a poll up, and I have the whole story planned out depending on which  
doctors to use. There is a poll on my profile you can vote on, or just say which  
doctors you would like to see in the next chapter of this story in a review.  
Obviously 4 is going to be in there, so don't worry 4 fans, he'll  
be there.**


	9. The Doctors United

**Here's the next part of the story. I hope it is good! **

"The Doctor," the man answered with a smile on his face, throwing an end of his scarf around his back and pulled out a small bag of something from his pocket offering her the bag, "Would you like a jelly baby?"

Rose stared at the man, shocked, for a few seconds, trying to find her voice. It was the Fourth Doctor, his fourth regeneration, The Doctor. But not her Doctor. It was Sarah Jane's doctor. The one with the voice Rose had commented on before the whole thing with Tarklatiz. Sarah Jane's, the one who helped them out at the high school… Sarah Jane was with her Doctor. And she looked so very happy (not that she didn't when Rose met her, but she still looked so happy), seeing how much she cared for The Doctor in her eyes as she looked at the scarfed Doctor.

"I-I would love one," Rose said taking one of the offered candies, picking an orange one at random.

"Don't!" Sarah warned with a chuckle, "Orange is his favorite."

"All right," Rose said with a giggle, placing the orange back and taking out another one, which turned out to be green. She ate it. In fact, the jelly baby was extremely good, chewy and tasty. She smiled, swallowing the candy.

"Are you all right?" Sarah asked, seeing her foot, which was lifted, making her balance on one foot (her lifted foot was only a couple of inches off the ground though).

"Oh, yeah… I'm just fine," Rose replied, her smile mixing with surprise and happiness.

"Is there something on my face?" Four asked, seeing the surprise in her look, his eyes wide leaning towards her, which made Rose giggle again.

"No, there isn't," Rose replied between her giggles.

"There is, isn't there?" Four asked looking towards Sarah.

"Oh, yeah, there is," Sarah replied faking seriousness, quite obviously, "Just there." She gestured his whole face and he smiled widely at her reply.

"I better clean that off then," Four replied before he took an end of his scarf rubbing it around his face and then holding his right to the side, presenting himself before Sarah. "Better?"

"Much," Sarah laughed. Rose couldn't help but keep her smile on her face watching the two interact the way they were. Mickey suddenly appeared at her side.

"No one's seen The Doctor," Mickey said in Rose's ear, before his eyes found Sarah and Four, who were both looking at him curiously. Mickey's eyes widened spotting the iconic colorful scarf.

"I'm right here," Four announced with his grin on his face.

"Rose," Mickey whispered, as if the other two couldn't hear him, "It's the scarecrow one!" Rose looked at Mickey with a look that said, 'I know that.'

"My name's Sarah Jane Smith," Sarah introduced herself, "And this is The Doctor… I don't see how he could look like a scarecrow."

"Rose Tyler, and this is Mickey Smith," Rose replied, introducing herself and Mickey, and chuckled at the comment Sarah made about not seeing the scarecrow, "I guess it's just the nose… and the hat with his hair…"

"You don't like my hair?" Four asked, his eyes wide again, his large smile gone, "I much like it." He pulled off his hat. "It used to be silver, but I prefer it like it is now."

"I liked your old hair too," Sarah commented, "But the brown curls suit you."

"See," Four said looking towards Rose, "She likes it."

"I didn't say I didn't," Rose replied with a laugh, "It does suit you. I wasn't the one who called you a scarecrow!" Mickey looked around as if to drive off attention and not meet eyes with Sarah or Four.

"So, why did you drag me here this time?" Four asked Rose, to which she looked confused, so he added, "The Time Lords dragged me here… or are you not the ones to tell me why?"

"We didn't drag you here," Mickey answered.

"You didn't?" Four asked, "But you seem to recognize me?"

"Doctor… Your future self is in trouble. We travel with you. We need to find you. So… we need to get moving, or you could regenerate… or die," Rose said quickly trying to turn and limp away, putting as little pressure on her hurt foot as possible.

"Your future…?" Sarah asked looking towards Four curiously who was watching Rose try and limp away, Mickey helping her, but still looking back at them.

"Rose, you need to sit down, you'll just injure it worse," Mickey said.

"I don't care," Rose replied with a very serious face, looking towards Mickey.

"Well, what do we have here?" a voice said, coming from the TARDIS. All four turned around and saw a tall man, wearing Victorian style clothes, and long brown curly hair.

"Not another one," Mickey groaned.

"Yes, indeed it is," the man said, "I never thought to see one of my previous selves, especially now, of all times."

"You're the Eighth Doctor, aren't you?" Rose said watching the man walk up to them, despite still being turned away from Four, Sarah, the TARDIS, and now Eight. Eight nodded.

"Oh good, I make it to my Eighth self, that's reassuring," Four said happily.

"Indeed," Eight replied with a smile, "So what has brought us together, Doctor?"

"I thought it was the Time Lords, don't you? They do these things to me all too often," Four said, his eyes wide, examining Eight.

"It wasn't them," Eight replied, his eyes turning dark.

"I see," Four said nodding his head, "Then perhaps these two have an idea." Four turned to look at Rose and Mickey.

"Well, there was this big bird," Rose began, but trailed off, seeing the amused faces of the two other doctors, "It came after us through the Time Vortex, alright? I'm not being stupid."

"Of course not," Four asserted, "I would never think you were, Rose."

"Are you sure… Rose?" Eight asked, having not been introduced, but taking Four's statement and inferring her name was Rose, or at least Four called her Rose.

"Positive," Rose said with a nod, "It took my… Doctor away, somewhere… that's all I know that's going on right now."

"Alright. We should find your Doctor. Three heads are better than two," Eight said.

"I'm going to find him," Rose asserted.

"No, you aren't," Mickey replied, holding her back, "You need to stay off your foot."

"I have an idea!" Sarah interjected, "You could stay in the TARDIS with The Doctor, and Mickey, The Other Doctor, and I could find your Doctor." Rose huffed, glaring at Mickey then at Sarah, before she sighed.

"Alright," Rose agreed, before she looked at Four then to Eight, "Which one will go and which will stay?" The two looked at each other, as if communicating together. Eight smiled widely.

"I'll stay here. After all, he is Sarah Jane's Doctor. It would be weird to have her go with me," Eight reasoned, and Four seemed to show that crazy smile at Eight's deduction.

"I'll be going with Sarah then," Four said, finally replacing his hat onto his head and strolling forward, Sarah walking right next to him with a skip in her step. Mickey looked at Eight and then Rose, before he sighed.

"Make sure she's alright, got it?" Mickey said and Eight nodded.

"I promise," Eight replied, walking up next to Rose, picking her up, her legs hooked on his arm, and her head resting on his other arm. Mickey looked at her for a moment.

"Hurry up Smith!" Sarah called, and Mickey smiled, before running off after the two others.

"Let's get you into my TARDIS," Eight said and Rose nodded, Eight carrying her into the doors of the blue box.

* * *

Oh the pain. It was unbearable. All over his body, aching, bruised. Even his eyes wouldn't open. They refused his command. He tried to open his mouth to say something, to let out something, but his mouth wouldn't respond. Air only got into his lungs through his nose, and even that hurt a lot to do as well, each breath feeling like someone had hit him in the chest with a baseball bat.

Finally. His eyes began working, they did as they were told to do. His eyes fluttered open with much effort, first blurring the roof overhead. He was on a bed. He could feel that now. His senses were beginning to return, and the pain began to dull slightly. Was he… not wearing a shirt? He could feel his trousers on his legs, but he couldn't feel his jumper or his jacket, just bandages around his chest.

"He's awake," a man's voice called.

"Go, now. I don't want him scared off with you lot all here," a woman's voice ordered, and a rush of people with hushed voices hurried from the room. The woman sighed. He couldn't see her yet. His head wouldn't move to let him see whoever it was who was in the room with him right now. Soon his vision cleared, and the roof could be made out. There was something familiar about the white paneled ceiling.

"Seems that he's still hurting; is there a way to relieve it?" a familiar voice asked, and older voice, and a man's voice, and his body reacted instinctively, shooting himself up into a sitting position. That didn't do very well, as his ribs felt like they had just cracked in his body. He clutched his chest, trying to relieve the pain, his eyes closed again.

"Oh, Doctor!" the woman's voice came again, and he felt hands around his waist, wrapping something around him, "I wouldn't do that if I were you!" The hands pushed him down to his laying position again. When he opened his eyes he saw a young woman, with blonde hair, and a familiar facial structure.

"Who… who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Kate, Doctor. Kate Stewart," Kate replied. He blinked a couple of times.

"The Brig's daughter?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, that's me," Kate said with a soft laugh, "Even when you change, you are still the same old Doctor he knew."

"Now there, dear lady," the older man's voice said, "I must say, from what I've met of them, I do change a lot in fact."

"You do?" The Doctor asked. An older man's face then appeared in his vision. The man had bright white hair, brushed back, and tucked under an astrakhan, and striking brown eyes. The Doctor's eyes widened. "You're… me. You're really me! How'd you get here?" It was obvious from his tone it was excitement he possessed at meeting himself.

"The TARDIS brought me here. Wouldn't let me leave," The First Doctor explained in a tired sounding tone, as if he hadn't slept in about a year (which was equivalent to a few days of no sleep to a human), "Been here for… oh, around a year and a half now."

"Really?" Nine asked, his excitement still very present in his demeanor, despite not being able to move much.

"Would I say that if it were not true?" One asked back, smiling at Nine's excitement.

"I'm not dead, right?" Nine asked, "I mean I was told when I died, I would meet my other selves, and with the Time Lock…" He stopped himself before he told himself too much about the future.

"No, my dear boy, you are very much alive," One replied with a soft chuckle. Nine pushed himself back up, scooting back so the headboard supported him. Both Kate and One moved to the end of the bed, so he didn't have to turn his head to see them.

"Rose," Nine said his eyes wide watching the two, "Where is she?"

"Who?" Kate asked.

"Rose Tyler, she travels around with me," Nine explained quickly.

"Ah, the one that Martha talks about?" Kate wondered.

"Martha?" Nine asked raising an eyebrow.

"You're from before…? You really need to stop all this time travel, it gets confusing," Kate joked shaking her head.

"That would take all the fun out of it," One replied smiling, his cane in his hand and his ring on his finger on the hand on the cane. Nine looked at One surprised. "What?" One asked.

"You admitted that it is fun," Nine said.

"After being stuck here for such a long time, I do miss traveling very much," One replied.

"Well, from what I remember, you traveled to teach mostly, and was fairly grumpy a lot of the time," Nine said with a soft chuckle.

"That is quite untrue, young man!" One insisted, and Nine laughed, then clutching his stomach, which had a sharp pain go through it. "You need to rest."

"No, I'm quite alright. Utterly fantastic," Nine insisted, "I really should be finding Ro –" He was interrupted by a voice yelling through the hall. Nine shook his head and crossed his arms, movement becoming less painful and easier. In ran Mickey Smith, breathing heavily stopping at the door and smiling at Nine.

"Rose?" Nine asked curiously. Mickey shook his head, and moved towards The Doctor, not minding One or Kate.

"She's at the TARDIS with… you. There are more of you running around here, but it looks like one TARDIS!" Mickey explained quickly. He then noticed Kate and One and held out his hand.

"Mickey Smith," Mickey introduced himself, shaking their hands individually.

"Kate Steward," Kate said.

"The Doctor," One said, which made Mickey's eyes go wide. However, before he could respond a loud crash came from the hall way and a head of brown curly hair went flying to the floor in front of the opened door. A young woman came to her side and helped the brown haired man up.

"You should be more careful with that scarf of yours," Sarah said with a smile that shown brightly.

"I really like your soldiers," Four said looking at the blonde Kate, "They're so determined. Made us run the whole way here. It's nice to know they look out for our health, making us run like that." Kate laughed and walked over to the two at the door, offering her hand.

"My name is Kate Stewart," She introduced, "I'll call them off. I wouldn't suggest breaking into UNIT headquarters, Doctor. You are not part of the team anymore, after all, with no clearance." The two looked at each other, both with grins ear to ear.

"You're The Brigadier's daughter!" they both said at the same time.

"I am," Kate replied with a nod, before gesturing them in, "I assume you're here for our guest?" Four pulled out his bag of candies and offered it to her.

"Jelly baby?" he asked. She nodded, taking one and eating it, smiling the whole time.

"The Brigadier would love to see you sometime, before you all leave," Kate noted.

"I will be sure to do that," Four said, before the two entered the room and walked up to the bed, Kate following them close behind. "My ears really look big now." Nine raised an eyebrow at Four.

"Should you really go there?" Nine asked, "What with your eyes, nose, hair…"

"What's wrong with my hair?" Four wondered, "Everyone seems to comment on my hair. Why does everyone comment on my hair?

"I don't understand it either; I'd think they'd comment more on your buggy eyes," Sarah chimed in.

"My eyes are not buggy," Four said with a fake taken aback tone, "What's wrong with my hair anyways?"

"It's just so… fluffy. I don't know if I could stand so much hair now," Nine explained with a grin.

"Says the nearly bald one," Sarah teased.

"Oi! I am not bald! It's just shaved," Nine insisted running his hand through his short hair.

"Doctors!" Mickey shouted, which caused eyes to fall on him, and he lowered his voice to a conversational loudness, "We need to find out why you are all here."

"I've spent the last year and a half trying to figure out what pulled me here," One noted, "Haven't slept in awhile, either. I can't find anything wrong with the TARDIS. It's almost like something is stopping its ability to go into the Time Vortex."

"There was Tarklatiz," Nine noted.

"Who?" Mickey asked.

"The one who sent the bird, the guy who tried to steal my regeneration energy?" Nine said slightly annoyed.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know his name. I told them," Mickey pointed to Sarah and Four, "About it all."

"I was expecting you to be still out," Four noted, "But you seem to be stronger than most Time Lords."

"You always were," Sarah commented, looking at Four with a different sort of smile, one that brought waves of nostalgia through Nine's body.

"Come now," One interrupted, "As you were saying, Doctor?" He looked at Nine, having him continue on about Tarklatiz.

"He's a Draglian, and came after me for regeneration energy. He was a couple days from his 500th birthday," Nine explained, and smiled at Sarah, and added so she would understand, "All Draglians die at exactly 500 years old, unless they steal regeneration energy from someone, like a Time Lord, who produces it." Sarah watched Nine, worriedly.

"Did he… get all of your energy? I-I mean, I know there can only be 13 of you," Sarah asked, looking at her Doctor with much worry.

"I don't know… I think he was able to steal one of my regenerations. Which would mean he is still alive, with 500 years more to live and come after my last two selves," Nine replied.

"Hold on just a moment," Four interrupted, "Mickey said you were the Ninth me. That would mean three more if he took one."

"There… was an incident. I remained with this face through a regeneration fluke. So, truly, I am Ten," Nine explained before looking at Mickey with a questioning look.

"What? I didn't know I needed to tell them everything!" Mickey insisted. Nine released his questioning look and smiled widely.

"Are you sure I'm not dead?" Nine asked looking towards the blonde Kate.

"If this is heaven, I'd hate to see what real life is like," Kate replied with a chuckle. Nine looked back at his other selves.

"I think we should go greet our other self. Perhaps another of us has shown up. More heads is better?" One suggested.

"Who put you in charge?" Nine asked, teasingly.

"I was the first," One pointed out, "And neither of you seem to be coming up with any plans."

"We were just talking, figuring out what was going on," Four said indignantly.

"Talking hasn't gotten us anywhere!" One replied, "Sometimes its best just to get out of the fire."

"And others you have to charge into danger head on!" Four argued, though not seeming to raise his voice at all, and actually finding it quite amusing by the look on his face. While the two were having their short little conversation, Nine moved to the side of the bed, moving his legs to hang of the side, in a position ready to stand up. Kate noticed this and went to Nine's side.

"Now that's not fair," Sarah said to One crossing her arms. Nine shook his head and Kate nodded with a soft chuckle to herself, helping Nine to his feet. She quickly opened a drawer that was next to the bed and pulled out a jumper and a very familiar leather jacket. Slowly he worked on his jumper and his jacket, smiling at Kate, as a thank you, before Nine walked over to the two doctors and two companions.

"Let's go," Nine interrupted their bickering. The two doctors fell quiet and the team of five headed towards the door.

* * *

Eight carried Rose through his TARDIS, which was much different than the TARDIS she was expecting, and knew so well.

"You changed the interior," Rose noted, as she was carried to the med bay.

"I change it every so often. Used to be this white color," Eight relied with a smile, setting her on one of the medical beds.

"That would be interesting to see. It's always been… dark," Rose said thoughtfully looking around the med bay.

"You would have loved it, I bet," Eight said pulling out a thin piece of metal from a bag nearby, before holding it to her foot and moving it slowly along her foot in wide sweeping movements.

"So… um… what point in the… war are you?" Rose asked. Eight looked at Rose with a dark look, one that her doctor gave her when she asked about the Time War.

"It's over," Eight replied, before turning to look at what he was doing with her foot. Rose looked at him curiously, propping herself up on her elbows.

"But… He… You said that it ended and then you found yourself him in the TARDIS," Rose said quickly.

"The TARDIS saved me, just barely in time, but I have not turned into him yet," Eight replied looking at Rose curiously.

"Oh… alright," Rose said a bit down from this, "Why'd he lie about it?"

"I don't know why I would," Eight replied curiously looking at Rose, nearly forgetting about healing her foot, but continuing the movement of the long device along her foot.

"I-I guess it's not a big deal," Rose sighed. Eight smiled at Rose.

"You really care for… the future me, don't you?" Eight asked.

"Yeah…" Rose replied, before chuckling, "Though you can be a big pain." Eight laughed aloud.

"I bet," Eight laughed.

"Though, I still care for you, a lot. I don't ever want to leave him… you. Even if you do lie to me occasionally…" Rose said with a smile at Eight, "You know, you're a lot like my Doctor. The same… look in your eye."

"The look of the lone survivor," Eight said with a smile back at Rose. From this, the two began talking about each other, Rose mostly about her and her doctor, and how Eight and Nine seemed similar, but so different at the same time, and Eight talked about his past lives, trying to ignore the war he had just come from.

"Alright, your foot should be just fine now," Eight said, offering his hand, which she took, and he helped her to her foot.

"Thanks," Rose said happily bouncing on her feet to test it out, "Just like new!" Eight laughed happily taking her hands, twirling her around, which she giggled at. Suddenly, Eight's face straightened, and he stared at her, holding her hands.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked. Eight suddenly smiled widely.

"Rose!" Eight said excitedly jumping around, spinning himself around, "Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose!" He took her hands again and gave her a kiss on her lips, causing a surprised Rose, and once he pulled back a second later he added, "I know why I'm here!" Rose raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Rose asked surprised at the sudden change.

"Tarklatis! The one you were talking about," Eight said quickly, "Oh, we need to find the other Doctors. I have to tell them!"

"What?" Rose asked again.

"I know what is going on, Rose!" Eight said excitedly.

"Alright, so slow down and tell me," Rose replied.

"Can't, not enough time," Eight said before he took her hand and ran to the TARDIS door, "I'll explain there; I promise." He pushed open the door, running out. However he stopped in his tracks. Before him was another familiar man, facing away from them.

"Doctor?" Rose said looking at the man in front of them. The man had longer blonde hair around his shoulders wearing a cricket outfit. The man turned around and saw Rose and Eight, which revealed the celery on his lapel.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Another one," Eight sighed, still smiling widely, "Doctor, I'm you from the future, someone brought us together, and it wasn't the Time Lords, this time." The blonde man, Five, watched Eight for a moment before he nodded.

"Alright," Five said, "Are there others?"

"Yes!" Rose interjected, "There is at least two others."

"Four and Nine," Eight replied, "I'm Eight."

"I better get Nyssa and Teagan then," Five said his face showing something Rose had only seen after something terrible happened to The Doctor.

"He just died," Eight said quietly looking at Five.

"Yes," Five replied with a small nod.

"Who?" Rose asked.

"A companion," Eight replied.

"Adric," Five said closing his eyes for a moment, before he opened them and walked towards the TARDIS door, "They think I'm just taking a walk." At that, the TARDIS door opened and out stepped a woman with shorter brown curly hair.

"Doctor," Teagan said quietly spotting the blonde haired man, before she saw the two others, "Who…?" Five smiled softly at Teagan before he sighed.

"No one," Five said taking her hand and opening the door again, gesturing her in, "I'll bring you home soon, alright?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," Teagan replied, standing at the door.

"Just go! Alright? I'll be back at some point. I promise. Soon, in fact. Right now, I just want to be alone," Five said raising his voice, obviously upset. Teagan looked at Five with surprised look before she nodded.

"Ok…" Teagan said turning towards the TARDIS interior, "We're hurt too, Doctor. When you find out that it'll be easier to deal with Adric together, we're in here." She entered the TARDIS, slamming the door behind her. Five sighed.

"I didn't want them to have to deal with this right now," Five said turning towards Eight and Rose.

"Well… maybe they would want to help you," Rose suggested.

"Don't," Eight whispered to Rose, "He just lost a boy he considered like his own son… a child still. He'll be fine, given a bit more time." Before either could respond, a call came from down the street.

"Rose!" the voice called. The three turned to see a group of five people coming their way, one including a certain doctor, who Rose's eyes focused on. The two locked eyes, and Rose's feet sped her away before she could even think about it. Running, running, right into the arms of her Doctor, her Nine. Just before she flew into her arms, Mickey quickly picked up an end of Four's scarf, placing it as a brace to help keep the hurt Nine from falling back.

"Rose," Nine whispered hugging her tight.

"I missed you, Doctor," Rose whispered back.

"Is your foot…?" Nine asked.

"It's just like new, thanks to your previous self," Rose replied with a small laugh. The other four in the newly arriving group watched the two of them, as Eight and Five ran up.

"A little closer than most companions," Eight commented, teasingly.

"I dunno, Sarah and I were very close," Five replied with a chuckle himself looking at Nine and Rose with a small smile, before looking over at Sarah and the scarfed one. Nine and Rose didn't seem to be paying attention to his previous selves and their comments.

"Just how close are you?" Sarah asked Four, who made a 'I don't know' face.

"You love her," Mickey interjected.

"You love her?" Sarah asked looking towards Four a bit of jealousy showing through.

"It's a different me entirely. I didn't even think I was capable of loving a human," Four said watching Nine and Rose embrace each other with great curiosity.

"At least I'm not the only one who finds this odd," One said eying his older self, before he clapping his hands together and grabbed the lapels of his jacket, taking a stance of command, "But we need to find out why this is happening, why we are all here."

"I know," Eight said quickly. Nine and Rose released their embrace, keeping their hands tightly holding each other.

"It is Tarklatis, isn't it?" Nine asked. Eight nodded.

"Yes. Rose said that he is a Draglian, and he has a schism. If he really wants to take our lives, then he wouldn't stop until he died," Eight said.

"But he was close to his 500th birthday," Nine noted.

"That doesn't mean he didn't steal one already," Eight replied darkly.

"If he has a schism… that would mean that… he could make a magnet of sorts," Five interjected, "If he had the TARDIS's signature, he could tether himself to where ever it landed."

"Exactly! And he followed Nine here," Eight explained quickly, "But… the magnet is strong enough to pull other TARDIS to the same spot where his landed, dragging us from the Time Vortex here, depending on if we passed a region of the Vortex the tether is in."

"So we all were travelling in the Vortex when we crossed it," One summarized.

"How does that explain you being here for so long?" Kat asked.

"I must have just scraped the tether area just barely before I landed, which brought me a little bit before Nine's TARDIS landed," One explained. The whole group had been discussing, but the discussion was cut short as clapping came from the direction of the TARDIS. There leaned a man against the wooden door, a man extremely thin, and with black hair that was standing up. If Rose would describe it, she would have said he had some really great hair. And he was thin enough that… perhaps if one were to hug him they could get a paper cut. But his eyes… they were dark. They weren't the kind of eyes one would see on any Doctor, the eyes of someone that was bent of destroying someone.

"Congratulations, Doctor," the man said, standing up straight, stopping his leaning on the TARDIS. Rose looked at Nine curiously, not understanding who it was, but The Doctors seemed to know who it was.

"Who are you?" Mickey asked. The man raised an eyebrow.

"You don't recognize me?" the man said coming up closer to the group, "I'm Tarklatiz."

**There you go! One more part to go. I rewrote the whole thing, originally going to add Six, but  
after rewatching Six, all of his lines seemed extremely out of character, so I cut him. Sorry Six  
fans... ****Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	10. Tether Release

**Sorry for the late update, vacation came. I really hope I didn't confuse anyone... it's not the best  
chapter in the world I don't think, and I really hope you all don't hate it. I really, really hope  
it isn't too confusing... it kind of seemed rushed to me, but I don't know how to fix it without  
adding a whole new chapter. Anyways, here it is! The conclusion of the Doctor clash!**

"You don't recognize me?" the man said coming up closer to the group, "I'm Tarklatiz." Rose raised an eyebrow confused.

"But you... aren't…?" Rose said looking at the man, who she really did find somewhat attractive, if he didn't have that crazy look in his eyes.

"He's regenerated," Kate said looking at the man.

"He stole regeneration energy from me," Four noted, "Enough for a complete regeneration."

"So… you'll not live as long?" Sarah asked with a worried look towards Four. In the background, the TARDIS door seemed to open quickly and shut as quickly as it opened

"Oh maybe, maybe not," Eight answered with an almost glum expression, which caused a curious look from the younger doctors.

"Don't tell me you…?" Five began, but he was cut off by Tarklatiz.

"Oh you lot won't ever shut up, will you?" Tarklatiz asked with a scoff, clapping his hands together quickly. Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, they were surrounded by what looked like humans with bright silver hair, men and woman, and even some children. Nine held Rose closer to him, tighter in his grip. . One took a step forward.

"You're not going to take any more of our lives," One asserted.

"Oh yeah? And how are you going to stop me?" Tarklatiz asked with that evil grin on his face, "We outnumber you 10 to 1."

"But you forget there are five doctors here," Five said taking a step forward as well, a bit nervous that perhaps the TARDIS door opened because of Teagan or Nyssa.

"Don't forget us!" Sarah added, "The four of us humans."

"And all you have are metal toys," Four said with one of his crazy smiles.

"Metal toys that will spell the end of you," Tarklatiz laughed, and his hand began raising up, to command the androids, "Capture The Doctors –" However, he was cut off by something behind him, which grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground in one fluid movement as a 'Hiyah' sound came from the attacker. Standing in the dust that had risen do to a man being thrown against a dirty and dusty road was a man with silver hair wearing a black cape with a red interior with a black sort of velvet suit with a white frilly shirt showing.

"Good job, Doctor!" Eight said happily as Three ran up to them.

"Yes, well, it was all fine and dandy, but I suggest we run," Three said quickly, "He's given the order to capture us, so, I am sure we're the targets." The other Doctors agreed, but before any of them could react, even Three, the six doctors were hit by something psychic, and in an instant they knew what exactly to do.

"Come on, Rose," Nine whispered, holding her hand tightly and running towards a nearby building. The Doctors had run in all different directions, and it worried Rose. She didn't know what was going on. Sarah Jane was being led by Four, and Mickey had hitched a ride with Eight, wherever they were going, Kate sticking by One. All she could do was trust that he knew what he was doing. They hurried down an alleyway, where they ran and ran as fast as they could.

"Where're we going?" Rose asked.

"Somewhere to hide," Nine replied.

"But… how did you…?" Rose began, but she was cut off by someone running right into them from their right. It was the silver haired Doctor who attacked Tarklatiz, and had now knocked them over onto the ground.

"Terrible sorry about that," Three said offering his hand, before he quickly turned around hearing something. Nine and Rose picked themselves up from the ground and Rose dusted herself off.

"They're coming," Three said urgently turning back to them, "Come on, the safe house isn't far." Three then ran off again, and Nine and Rose followed right behind him.

"What safe house?" Rose asked.

"The one our other-self told us about," Nine responded turning his head towards her for just a moment as they ran.

"There's another one?" Rose asked.

"There should be 12 of us in the end," Three informed her.

"Well, actually, about that…" Nine began but Three quieted him by yanking a door open and leading the other two inside. Inside was a fairly large room, with a floral carpet and several pink pieces of furniture. On a flowery couch sat a man with a mop of black hair.

"Not you again!" Three said with a frustrated look. The man quickly scampered up off of the sofa to see those who entered. Rose recognized this one too.

"You're his… Second him," Rose said.

"Second me," Three said in a correction.

"Yes well," Two said eying Three, "I was the one to save you lot from that Tarklatiz bloke."

"Please don't start this again," Four said entering the room with one of his grins.

"I wasn't starting it!" Three and Two insisted at the same time.

"Doctor!" Sarah said interrupting them, running by four and wrapping her arms around Three, "I missed you." Three smiled slightly at Sarah, patting her back, and she released the hug.

"She sees the regeneration?" Three asked.

"Yeah I did," Sarah said angrily, "I thought you were going to die!"

"In a sense, I did, Sarah Jane," Three replied.

"Sorry to interrupt the reunion," Rose said loudly, "But we're missing a few of you, and Mickey and a whole army of androids are looking for us."

"Not you," Four corrected, "Just us, The Doctor."

"So, they won't be trying to find us?" Sarah asked.

"Exactly, Sarah!" Four said happily with a huge smile on his face.

"Doctor…?" Sarah began looking up at Four.

"Yes, Sarah Jane?" Three answered as Four replied with, "Yes, Sarah?" The two looked at each other, Three raising an eyebrow, and Four laughing. Sarah looked at the two of them curiously, though she couldn't help but smile at the two Doctors she knew well.

"I don't quite understand everything," Sarah continued.

"Yeah," Rose interjected, "The whole magnet and schism thing?"

"And that he stole a regeneration from you?" Sarah added with a nod.

"You see," Nine said joining the conversation, "Tarklatiz has a portal into the Time Vortex. And locked onto the TARDIS signature, by following us with that bird of his. Originally, I bet it was supposed to drag me back, but I managed to escape its grasp and disable it."

"So," Four jumped in, "He created a sort of tether, a magnet of sorts. Instead of pulling the TARDIS to him, as it may not have me… him… us… in it, he climbed the tether to him."

"And so we," Three said understanding what was going on, "came because we crossed the region of the Time Vortex, and was pulled to the TARDIS, because it is the same TARDIS."

"So, then why are there not multiple of… each self?" Rose asked.

"That would be because the TARDIS would die if there were multiple of one self," Two added.

"Why?" Rose asked.

"Because then the frequency on the TARDIS would be the same. There's a special mechanism built in to prevent the crossing of time lines. It can be bypassed," Two explained.

"Like when you met your father, Rose," Nine noted with a nod looking at her with a grim grin, as in strode the blonde younger looking Doctor, Five, who had a grimace on his face.

"You turned off the safety?" Five asked expressing some of the thoughts the other doctors were thinking.

"Yes, I did. You will in the future too. Extenuating circumstances," Nine said.

"How was it…?" Rose began, but Nine gave her a look to be quiet.

"Yes, Doctor, what could have happened that you had to break the first rule of time?" One asked with a scolding look. Nine crossed his arms and looked at the crowd of Doctors with scolding looks.

"And you lot haven't done illegal Time… things?" Nine said defensively, "When you meddle around in history, writing for Shakespeare or–" The Doctors then erupted in arguments among themselves.

"You know that those were completely necessary," Four said.

"We never did anything like what you did, on purpose!" Five interjected.

"So, it was random from what time in your timeline you came from?" Sarah asked cutting the Doctors off, changing the subject to what was happening now, trying to get the Doctors from getting onto themselves for things they would eventually do, or had done.

"Exactly!" Four said proudly once more, "We were pulled from our times, only one of us crossing the region the magnet is acting on, the others being repelled by the mechanism on the TARDIS."

"And Tarklatiz has been here for a while," One said walking through a door.

"What?" the present doctors asked at the same time.

"That's why I've been here for so long. He needed time to prepare for your arrival here, so he widened the area so he could lock onto the TARDIS, but come before it actually came," One explained walking to the center of the room.

"He's been here for a while," Kate said coming from behind One, having followed the older man, "Tarklatiz, as you call him, has been here for nearly a year. A UNIT soldier, I should have known, always suspected something was up with Private Lewis. I bet he was waiting for you to show up, while taking UNIT supplies and getting everything ready here for you."

"If he did get the last place that the bird was before it was disabled…" Nine said, "Then he'd know where I would be."

"You're forgetting something," Sarah interjected. The Doctors all turned towards her with a confused look. Silence fell, before she went on. "Where's Eight and Mickey?" Everyone exchanged looks, silently, Rose looking at Nine with a worried look, and the other Doctors worrying.

"They'll be here," Rose said confidently, "Just a matter of time." The whole group was silent for a few more moments, before one of them finally spoke up.

"I believe we should have a conference," One suggested, "That way, we can figure out how to reverse this and get back to our own times."

"Alright," Nine agreed, letting go of Rose's hand and crossing his arms, the other Doctors agreeing with a nod, or a soft 'hmph'. The Doctors closed their eyes and the two companions looked on with great curiosity.

_What if we hook up a computer with the UNIT super computer? _

_Would that really work? _

_It might connect us to the androids, might be able to upload a program. _

_A virus, it'll destroy them all. _

_I dunno about that, it seems like genocide. _

"The Brig told me they did this once before," Sarah whispered, inching closer to Rose, "Though it was only three of them then."

"What exactly are they doing?" Rose whispered back.

"I dunno. I think it's some sort of telepathic connection," Sarah answered.

_They are simply computers right now, Doctor, remember that. _

_True. _

_We'll have to get close to the androids as well, a bulk of them at least._

_Kate will have to let us into the UNIT supercomputer room. _

_I'll go with her. _

_Alright, One will go with Kate and connect the supercomputer wirelessly to a computer where one of us will get close without Tarklatiz noticing. _

_We'll need a distraction. _

_I'll distract him._

_Alright, Four, you can distract him. I'll keep him restrained._

_I was going to say that!_

_I got to it first. _

_I want to restrain him! _

_Alright, both of you can. _

"So they're communicating?" Rose asked.

_Then another of us can distract them on the other end. I believe I can do that. _

_Alright, Five. I'll take the computer._

_Nine, you need to stay away – _

_So if something goes wrong, I can give myself up. _

_No!_

_No!_

_Absolutely not!_

_I will not let you do that. _

_Only if everything fails, alright? I promise I won't give myself up willy nilly. Only if absolutely necessary. _

"Yes, we are," Nine said with a huge smile, snapping out of their trance, looking at her and offering his hand, "And we know what to do now."

"Which is?" Rose asked.

"You'll have to wait and see," Nine replied, "But we ought to get moving."

"Oh come on Doctors!" Sarah said with a pout, "We can help!"

"You will, Sarah," Four said with that crazy looking smile, "You three humans will be instrumental in our plans."

"We can't be wasting any more time!" One announced, and the other doctors agreed with a grumble of mumbles. The group then headed for a closed door, though Nine took Rose's hand and walked her across the room.

"Rose, stay here," Nine said with a worried whisper, looking towards the group for a moment. Rose looked at him disbelieving.

"No," Rose said looking at him as if he just suggested something completely terrible.

"Rose Tyler," Nine said softly taking her hand, before Rose shook her head, taking her hand from his.

"Don't you Rose Tyler me, Mister!" Rose said loudly, which drew a few heads of those who had not already gone to where ever they were supposed to, "I want to help! You need me. There's nothing to discuss." She pushed passed him, but he turned, holding her back, by the hand.

"Please, Rose. We can manage with just Kate and Sarah," Nine said flashing a look to the turned heads, which then turned back around and left the room, leaving just the two of them.

"I don't care," Rose said glaring at him, "Why let them go? Not me? Do you not trust me? Do you think I'll just mess everything up?" Nine looked at her, their eyes meeting and him studying her, while she glared at him.

"No. Rose… I'm worried about you. I don't want to lose you," Nine said watching her.

"You won't. We'll get out of this just like we always do," Rose said her glare softening. Nine continued gazing at her, before he sighed. He leaned forward, placing a kiss on her forehead.

"Don't take any unnecessary risks, promise?" Nine requested, quietly, and Rose smiled widely at Nine, like a kid who had gotten what she wanted.

"I promise, Doctor," Rose said happily, turning and skipping from the room, Nine following.

* * *

It was a darkened room, with only one spot of light in the room where a man was, laying on a metal bed-like platform with metal restraints holding him there, standing up to look out to the blackness. It was the Eighth Doctor hooked up to the metal bed, his hair messy behind his head, and his eyes barely stirring at the moment. However, soon, his eyes opened widely and he began to fight against his restraints in vain, as he was securely held down.

"Oh, you're awake finally," came the voice of Tarklatiz, as the tall, skinny man walked into the light, "They weren't supposed to knock you out, Doctor, but it was the only way to get you here. You're always a clever one. I wouldn't doubt that your other selves are already started with a plan to rescue you. But that's exactly what I want, Doctor. I can't use you, nor your past selves, unfortunately."

"Because the Time Reapers would eat you alive, because you've already started with Nine," Eight supplied with a smile on his face, "You won't win, you know. We're all here… well, there are a couple that haven't come yet, but most of us are here. Do you really think you can win?"

"Yes, I can. And I will," Tarklatiz said with a laugh, placing his face near Eight's, "And you know what's even better?" Eight didn't answer. "I'll kill all those you love in front of each of your selves, before I finally suck the rest of your life out of you."

"You won't be able to," Eight spat, "They'll save me, they'll defeat you, Tarklatiz. I believe in all of them. Even the one I haven't met yet." One of the androids from the street, which looked just like a human besides some spots and smoother skin, came up and stood by Tarklatiz.

"We have captured another Doctor, Great One," the android said, motioning for others to come forward. Two others marched into the lighted area, holding another man struggling against the arms of the androids, who all looked pretty much the same. The man was wearing a long scarf with a brown tweed long coat, with a head full of tight brown curls, The Fourth Doctor. Tarklatiz shook his head.

"Still not the right one," Tarklatiz said, then sighing, "Get him into one of the restraints." He waved the androids off.

"Hello Eight!" Four greeted with a small restricted wave of his hand, as the androids connected him to another metal bed, "You seem a bit tied up, today."

"Oh really?" Eight asked sarcastically, turning his head towards Four, "I would never have noticed that I'm a prisoner of a crazy Draglian who wants to steal my lives without you pointing it out."

"You're welcome!" Four said with a crazy smile, "You really should pay more attention if you needed me to point it out."

"Oh shut up!" Tarklatiz interrupted snapping his fingers and soon their mouths were covered by an iron bar, "I'm here trying to gloat over you, and there you are-" However, he stopped mid-sentence and began coughing up a storm, placing a hand over his mouth, as some blood splattered out of his mouth. When his coughing settled, he looked back up at the Doctors. "Your meddling companion interrupted the process, I could only do a partial regeneration." He snapped again, their mouths released so they could talk. Eight opened his mouth to say something, but Four interrupted him.

"Oh good! I chose good companions!" Four said with a grin, seeming quite proud, "You know, I wasn't quite sure about Jo when we first met, but she turned out to be fairly good, but I knew when I met Sarah, she was going to be a good companion. Wasn't sure about Ian and Barbara when they came aboard–"

"Don't you ever shut up?" Eight interjected frustrated, "This isn't the time to reminisce."

"You should know, after all, you are me. And anyways, it's the perfect time! When is there time otherwise?" Four replied with an innocent look and then flashing another one of the crazy smiles he was quite known for.

"Out of all of them to get caught, I get stuck with you," Eight said frustrated, turning his head back to Tarklatiz was looking fairly amused now. It was extremely odd really, one second he wanted them to shut up, the next he was enjoying them talking.

"Quite fantastic, don't you think?" Four said with a laugh as a couple more androids entered. Tarklatiz turned towards the androids with a raised eyebrow.

"We found one female trying to get into UNIT," the android stated.

"And where are they?" Tarklatiz asked.

"You told us to tell you if there were females trying to get in," the android replied, "They are most likely at the Headquarters right now."

"What? You idiot machine! You weren't supposed to let anyone in!" Tarklatiz shouted.

"You did not specify those instructions," the android said.

"I did too! Fine… fine, go get them. Kill them, bring them back here, something. Just don't let them stay there," Tarklatiz ordered.

"As you command, Great One," the android stated and turned, the other android next to it turning and leaving with it. Tarklatiz turned back towards The Doctors.

"Now where were we?" Tarklatiz asked with a wicked smile on his face, crossing his arms looking at The Doctors.

"Watching you see the limitations of your creations?" Four suggested.

"No that wasn't it," Eight replied with a sigh, "We were just getting to the part where his whole life's work can't even keep two women out of a place."

"No, I think we were at how I am going to completely destroy you, and everything you love," Tarklatiz said with a grin on his face.

"Oh, now, is that really necessary? I mean, you already are going to take some of my lives from me," Four replied, with his "reasoning" look.

"Very much so, Doctor. You've embarrassed me; you've shoved my whole life's work in my face. I'm going to make you suffer for it," Tarklatiz explained.

"We'll have to see, then, Tarklatiz," Four said still smiling widely.

"You're still holding out hope that they'll come save you. I thought you might have been wiser when you were younger. You're still a–" Tarklatiz began but he began coughing again, blood coming from his mouth.

"If this is going to happen often, you should really warn us so we don't have to watch you cough up blood like that," Four said.

"Y-you!" Tarklatiz yelled between coughs, but before anyone else could say anything a loud noise came from the darkness.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" the yell came, as a mop of black hair swung into view hitting Tarklatiz on his side, the lights turning on, revealing a large warehouse with hundreds of androids, with a walkway near the roof around the rectangle room. Tarklatiz fell to the ground, and the mop of black hair began holding him down, his coughing having now stopped.

"I told you that was my job!" came a shout, as another man, with poofy silver hair, swung down, though not quite with as much bang as the mop of black hair had.

"You were taking too long, Three!" the mop of black hair, Two, asserted, struggling to keep Tarklatiz down.

"You just had to wait!" Three replied, before he helped Two hold Tarklatiz down.

"You're not going to win!" Tarklatiz laughed, "Capture all The Doctors! And ki–" Two and Three kept holding down Tarklatiz, Two now covering his mouth; however, Tarklatiz responded by licking Two's hand, making Two remove it.

"That is just unsanitary!" Two shouted looking disgusted, and Three then covering Tarlatiz's mouth, and not releasing it because of the man's tongue.

"Yes, that's all fine and dandy, but I think making sure he doesn't order them to kill the others is more important," Three stated shaking his head.

"I wouldn't have let him!" Two insisted. The androids had been making their way towards the two holding down Tarklatiz this whole time.

"Hey! You shiny metal morons!" a voice came from the other side of the warehouse area, which came from the cricket uniform clad Doctor who had a smile and his blonde hat on his head, leaning on his cricket bat, causing the crowd of androids to turn towards Five, who smirked, and some of the androids went after him. Other continued towards the two holding Tarklatiz down. However, at that moment, two woman, Sarah and Rose, hurried towards the two Doctors who were on the metal beds.

"Alright," Sarah said looking at Four and Eight, "How do we get you down?"

"I suppose you'll have to release the metal bars holding us here," Four said with wide eyes and his smile.

"How?" Rose asked a bit panicked and under a time constraint.

"Alright, I'll hold them back," Two said in the background, "You hold him down. You can do that, can't you?" They were getting too close to the pair and needed to back off a little bit.

"Who put you in charge?" Three asked, "I'll take care of them." Three, without letting Two respond, got up and charged towards the androids, throwing the over his shoulder, and all around with his fighting skills, as Five began hitting the androids across the warehouse away from him with his bat.

"I don't know. I haven't seen this configuration before," Eight admitted. Rose bit her lower lip before she pulled out the sonic screwdriver from her pocket, Nine's screwdriver, as Sarah pulled out Four's sonic screwdriver. "It was all a plan, wasn't it? You getting caught."

"Yes, it was," Four replied with a grin.

"Alright, hold still," Rose said pointing the screwdriver at the metal holding Eight's arms, as Sarah mirrored Rose's movements on Four's restraints. Soon the metal restraints let go and the two Doctors fell from the metal beds onto their feet, though Eight stumbled, Rose helping him steady himself.

"Good job!" Four said happily hugging Sarah, "Now it's up to Kate and One." Before anyone could say anything else, androids had snuck up behind them and grabbed them each firmly holding them. Tarklatiz had managed to wrestle away from Two, holding Two himself, before passing him off to an android, and across the way, the cricket bat snapped, leaving an opening for the androids to catch Five, and brought him up to the other Doctors.

"I told you that you wouldn't be able to defeat me," Tarklatiz said dusting himself off looking towards the captured group, "Where's Nine?"

"Right here!" a voice said coming from one of the platforms around the walls of the large warehouse-like building. Tarklatiz looked up and saw the leather jacket clad Doctor holding a computer in his arms.

"What are you doing?" Tarklatiz asked seeming slightly scared.

"I'm going to use the UNIT supercomputer to cut your androids off of your control," Nine announced, his finger hovering over a button the computer.

"And how will you do that?" Tarklatiz said as a grin snuck onto his face, "I don't even have to use my arm to control them."

"Can't waste time," Nine said, pressing the button. The air went tense, but nothing happened. "What?" He pressed the button again. "Kate!" The faces of Four, Five, Rose, and Sarah fell, while Eight looked like he understood what Nine was trying to do, his face eventually falling itself. An android went up behind Nine, grabbing Nine, who dropped the computer, before jumping off of the elevated floor, landing softly on the ground below due to some sort of light on the android's feet. Nine looked upset, angry, and a bit guilty, with a scared look in his eye.

"I'm sorry, Rose. I wasn't able to stop him," Nine said as he was walked up to Tarklatiz.

"I always win, Doctor," Tarklatiz said with a cocky grin, "Get him to the extractor." The androids began marching off with Nine, who was struggling.

"Rose!" Nine said struggling looking back, despite being dragged away.

"Wait," Tarklatiz said, "Bring him back, right next to me." The androids did as he told them to do, holding him next to the tall black haired Tarklatiz.

"Before you die, I want you to see the ones you love die," Tarklatiz said with a grin, "I nearly got caught up in the excitement of finally recaptur–" He began one of his coughing fits again, each fit having gotten exponentially worse. But The Doctor's couldn't do anything to get away while the man was distracted and coughing up blood.

"This is really getting ridiculous," Four stated with a grin, which faded once Tarklatiz recovered and glared at him.

"You," Tarklatiz said, pointing to the android holding Rose and Eight, "Kill the girl." The android let go of Rose, holding onto Eight, pulling out a small ray gun from its side. Rose looked terrified, and a tear seemed to form in her eye, looking at Nine.

"Rose!" Nine yelled, struggling again against the hold of the android as Rose was looking at him.

"Oh this will be great," Tarklatiz said with a large smile on his face, Rose looking back at The other Doctors. The android aimed the ray gun at Rose, seeming to hesitate a little bit. "Get on with it!" Tarklatiz ordered as Rose finally stopped on Nine. The android blinked slowly before actually having a look of regret, slackening its grip on Eight before extending its arm.

"I… a-am… s-s-sory," the android said mechanically, pulling the trigger. However, Eight managed to free himself from the grip of the android, throwing himself between him and Rose, the ray from the gun hitting him in the head.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled. The android dropped the ray gun looking at its hand.

"I'll do it myself," Tarklatiz spat, raising his arm, making the android power down and fall over. Tarklatiz went over picking up the gun himself aiming it at Rose, Eight on the floor barely holding onto life.

"Oi!" a yell came. Tarklatiz turned around annoyed, still pointing the gun at Rose.

"What is it this time?" Tarklatiz said extremely annoyed, "I'm about to kill this girl and you…" He trailed off.

"Yeah, forgot about me, didn't you?" Mickey asked with a grin, standing where Nine had with the computer in his hand, "I reckon I know a few more things about computers than our good Doctor here. Haven't been distracted by adventures, or sonic screwdrivers to do my work for me."

"Mickey!" Rose said excitedly.

"You don't Mickey," Nine assured him with a laugh.

"Oh really?" Mickey pressed a button on the keyboard, and the androids holding The Doctors and Sarah let go, pulling their guns on Tarklatiz.

"How did you…?" Tarklatiz began, but Mickey interrupted him.

"Drop the gun, or you're dead," Mickey ordered. Tarklatiz glared at Mickey for a moment before he released his grip on the gun, Nine taking it from him, before discarding it on the floor.

"Good job Smith!" Sarah cheered.

"Doctors!" Five quickly shouted, "No time for victory celebrations. We're dying." Five was kneeling next to Eight, who was holding on life by a thread, barely conscious.

"I'm going to regenerate," Eight said. The crowd of Doctors and companions hurried around him, looking at him.

"Doctor," Rose said softly kneeling next to him. Five looked at her before he stood up and stepped back. Sarah was looking at Eight covering her mouth, nearly stepping forward, but Four held her back.

"At least… I went out as a hero," Eight said, "And not a killer." His breathing began to gain color, literally. His breathe was golden, like the regeneration energy she had seen Nine breathe out before.

"Doctor…" Rose said again, softly, before she leaned over, placing a soft kiss on his lips, pulling back, standing up, and taking a step back. The regeneration was fairly different than the one she had seen her Doctor go through. First of all, he was going to change his face. Second of all, it wasn't quite as explosive. It was actually fairly peaceful, as the gold energy engulfed his face and his body, slowly changing into the face of Nine.

"We have to go. More than one of me with this face…" Nine began, pulling Rose away, who followed willingly, "Mickey, shut down the tether, send a loop back that will seal up the schism, alright? Make it so he loses the TARDIS signature as well." Mickey looked at Nine confused.

"What?" Mickey asked.

"They'll explain," Nine called, "I have to get out of here, alright. Make sure that the other me gets to his TARDIS. He'll be out for a little while, we need to seize that and get out of here." Nine held Rose's hand and exited the warehouse building.

"So more than one of you…?" Rose began asking.

"Yes. If I were to see my own face on another, then it would create a terrible paradox and The Reapers would cleanse the wound," Nine said, "I couldn't watch him turn into me, and I had to get out of there as well."

"So it's not being in the same room?" Rose asked.

"Not at all," Nine replied, "Well, sort of. But not in this case. If I touched myself, that would make The Reapers come, but I didn't. Like… when you touched your baby self," Nine explained, "But seeing yourself as a baby wasn't disastrous, because you didn't look the same, you were so much more aged than the other, but my face, it doesn't age, so it's like I'm just as old as that Doctor who just regenerated."

"I don't quite understand, but I guess it's alright," Rose said, "But… why didn't you tell me that you actually regenerated here?"

"I won't remember," Nine replied, "None of us will, besides you, me, and Mickey."

"What? Why not?" Rose asked.

"Otherwise I'd have known what was going to happen, Rose," Nine explained, "Come on, I'll explain it to you in the TARDIS."

* * *

"Doctor!" Mickey's voice came from the door of the TARDIS, as Nine pulled himself up out of a hole in the TARDIS floor, where he was repairing something in his TARDIS.

"Alright then," Nine replied, "Rose! Come on. We're going to see them off."

"What? I thought you couldn't…?" Rose said prancing into the console room.

"Nah, just not me with this face. He's in his TARDIS, unconscious," Nine replied with a smile, holding out his hand, which she took and the two headed out of the TARDIS where they were greeted by The Doctors who had come here before the tether was released.

"So, you all can go now?" Rose asked.

"Yeah, I broke the tether. It brought the Tark guy back, destroyed his schism and released the hold on the TARDIS," Mickey explained.

"I had to talk him through it," Two noted with a large smile, slightly dorky, but charming.

"But we're ready to go," One said with a smile, "Kate and I are sorry for the wait on the UNIT supercomputer, androids got in our way."

"Wait, that was how I was able to tap into those androids?" Mickey asked.

"My dear boy, what you did was something we weren't planning on," One stated.

"We planned on killing all of the androids," Nine explained, and Mickey raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't think they were sentient beings until that one hesitated on killing Rose," Four explained, "Was worried we were about to commit genocide."

"That would have been terrible," Five added.

"Yeah, it would," Nine said a bit glumly.

"But thanks to you, you were able to tap into their systems and simply put them into sleep mode," Three said with a smile, an arm around Sarah's shoulders, who seemed fairly excited to see her older Doctor now trouble had been averted.

"So, it was some UNIT supercomputer that made it possible," Mickey said looking disappointed.

"Partly, yes. No one could do it without the UNIT supercomputer," One asserted, "It is a fine computer, more advanced than anything you humans will have for at least another hundred years. Though you still had to have proximity."

"And if it failed, I could give myself up," Nine said.

"I wouldn't have let you," Rose replied with a scowl on her face looking at Nine.

"Luckily, everything turned out good in the end," Four announced, "But our time together is limited. Eight's TARDIS is set to leave at precisely 6 o'clock, which means we have ten minutes to leave."

"Wait… why? Do you have to leave at the same time or the world explodes?" Mickey asked completely lost.

"Yes Mickey, it would," Nine explained, "Time is wibbly wobbly here, with so many of us in one location, not to mention our TARDISes in the exact same location. If the same TARDIS is to take off at the precisely same moment and the same location, to those inside, this will seem to never have happened. If I remembered this, then it would create very bad paradoxes, that we don't want to deal with."

"A convenient mind wipe," Rose added with a nod, "He went into detail on why, it just turned out to be too hard to understand."

"Alright, so none of you will remember?" Mickey asked.

"Nope," Four said.

"Come on, time's a wasting, get in," One ordered waving for The Doctors to go into their TARDIS.

"To Heathrow Airport, hopefully," Five said with a sigh walking towards the TARDIS.

"You'll get there this time," Nine assured Five, "Tegan'll come back eventually, don't worry." Five nodded, entering the TARDIS. Both Three and Two took the next step towards the TARDIS, and the two glared at each other, before they laughed, and both offered for the other to go first. Eventually, the two made their way into the TARDIS as well. Leaving One, Four, and Sarah to go into the TARDIS, as Nine, Mickey and Rose didn't have to leave, as their memory did not need to be wiped.

"Rose," Sarah said walking up to her, "I hope we'll meet someday. Come visit me sometime, alright?"

"I will, I promise, Sarah Jane," Rose said with a smile, her tongue between her teeth giving her the Rose-like smile she was fairly known for between her and the TARDIS team.

"Good. I have a feeling we'd be great friends," Sarah said with a small nod.

"You have no idea," Rose laughed, thinking of the tension that was between the two at the beginning of their relationship.

"Come, Sarah, time's passing by," Four said with one of his crazy smiles, ushering her into the TARDIS, holding the door for her. She entered, waving good-bye before Four entered, shutting the door behind her.

"I'll see you in my future," One said with a small stern smile, "Be careful with her, humans are trouble."

"Trouble is fun," Nine replied, which One laughed a bit at, before entering his TARDIS. The final three people stood watching the TARDIS, which soon the light began flashing and the engine sounded, though the box did not disappear, as their TARDIS was still there.

"Doctor!" a call came from behind the three who turned around, seeing the blonde Kate.

"They're gone, aren't they?" Kate asked, stopping nearing the group, Rose nodded, "I wanted to catch them… oh well…" Kate sighed and looked at Nine with a smile. "I really am sorry for being late."

"Don't worry yourself over it, everything turned out fine in the end," Nine said waving off the apology, before turning his head to his sides towards Mickey and Rose, "We better be going ourselves. Lots to do; universes to explore; planets to be saved, the normal. Keeps us busy."

"I guess this is good-bye for now, Doctor," Kate said hugging Nine, before backing away and smiling softly, "You know, you really were a little rude when you were younger."

"He always is. He's just learned how to hide it," Rose teased, with an extremely happy smile on her face.

"Oh, do you want to see how rude I can be Rose Tyler?" Nine said, stressing Rose Tyler part, with a smile on his face, saying he was just teasing as well.

"Come on, then, you two. Got to go, right?" Mickey asked. Nine nodded, and the three turned around.

"Bye Kate!" Rose called looking back and waving, as they walked over to the TARDIS, entering the blue box.

"A supercomputer, really?" Mickey said as he entered, closing the door behind him. Soon the engines went off and the blue box disappeared. Kate smiled before she turned around and walked off towards UNIT Headquarters.

**Alright, thinking of the next chapters, I don't think I'll do all of them, so if there are some you don't want me  
to do, such as Love and Monsters, or Fear Her or Idiot's Lantern, I won't do them. I am doing the Rise of Steel two  
parter, and definitely the Satan Pit two parter, and of course, Doomsday ( :'( Just thinking about it makes me feel sad),  
but you know, it's all good. Probably won't do any originals until I get these next two, two parters out of the way at least.  
There will be a poll on my profile and you can just say so through review if you have preference over which ones  
I skip or don't skip.**


	11. Rise of the Cybermen

**Alright, here's the next chapter. Rise of the Cybermen! I had the idea for the start of this chapter  
a while back, and always planned Mickey to be in it, so it really is my last chance. For all you  
Mickey fans, he will stay in this world at the end of the next chapter. **

**You all may have noticed that I skip the parts that are not involving The Doctor, usually,  
and that is because that stuff wouldn't change in the AU'ness of the story.**

**Also, no matter what John Hurt's Doctor is, he won't be the same in this story,  
and if he turns out to be instrumental to other stories, then I have a solution  
that should work without making him between 8 and 9, which I think is confirmed,  
not sure, but anyways... in this story, John Hurt's Doctor is not between 8 and 9.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

Rose Tyler wore a rainbow polka dot bikini, the top with ties to hold it on, one around the neck, and one around her body. On her face she wore a large smile as she headed from the changing room onto the tile, looking out at the clear blue water before her, a pool which looked like it had no floor.

"Doctor?" Rose asked looking out at the pool. She walked a little farther, before she slowly stepped in the pool. "Come on!" She was talking fairly loudly now, so he could hear her, "I'm sure you look fantastic." She soon reached a part of the pool where she could no longer walk on the floor of the pool, and began floating, her arms slowly pushing her forward, before deciding to stop. She floated in her position, turning around towards the dressing rooms with a huge smile on her face.

"Doctor!" Rose said with a bit of a giggle coming through, "It's not that big of a deal. Your jacket will there for when you get ba–" She was interrupted by something, a sort of feeling running up the front of her leg. She screamed, kicking whatever it was touching her. Soon out came a familiar man with extremely short hair, big ears who held his cheek with one of his hands.

"Doctor!" Rose yelled out, apologetic in her tone.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked in his unmistakable Northern accent.

"I didn't realize it was you," Rose answered with a worried look, hesitating on reaching for his hand which was covering the spot she had hit, "I'm sorry! So, so very sorry!" The Doctor looked at her with an unhappy look, before a grin appeared on his face, though it faded as fast as it could.

"That hurts," he said rubbing the spot a bit.

"Here, let me see," Rose said, taking his hand gently off of his face revealing a large red spot starting to turn purple, "It's bruising."

"Bruising? I'm getting a bruise?" The Doctor asked with a smile, before it faded again as another shoot of pain stabbed his face, "I haven't had one in a long time! Oh, this is fantastic! How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad," Rose said with a giggle at his reaction.

"Red? Oh, is it swelling?" he asked, his smile returning, not going this time, despite feeling the pain of the bruise.

"Yeah, it looks like it is," Rose replied not being able to stop smiling so widely and giggling at him.

"Time Lords don't bruise like this very often. You must have a very strong leg," The Doctor said with a laugh, "Though, it does hurt to smile."

"Would it help if I kissed it?" Rose asked placing running her finger tips gently across the bruise on his cheek.

"I think it just might," The Doctor replied not being able to stop smiling no matter how much pain came because of it.

"Alright then," Rose said slowly moving her head to his cheek, gently placing a light kiss on his bruised cheek. She lingered on his cheek for a moment, before slowly moving away from his cheek and watching The Doctor, who in turn watched her, with that grin on his face. For a few moments the two simply watched each other, floating in the water together.

"Geronimo!" came a yell, and the two quickly looked around seeing Mickey dive in from one of the diving boards, soon hitting the water, making a large splash. Rose laughed, and The Doctor kept on smiling, both looking away to keep the water from getting into their eyes. Soon Mickey rose to the top of the water, taking in a large breathe, seeing the two, and swimming over to them.

"I hope I'm not late," Mickey said with a large smile.

"Come here," The Doctor said, as Mickey swam towards them, The Doctor intercepting him, holding his with his arm around the back of Mickey's neck, "You know, us Time Lords are very good with telling time, and I can tell you that you are late. Do you know what the penalty for lateness is?"

"Uh, no, Doctor… what is it?" Mickey asked curiously looking at the Time Lord.

"Dunking," The Doctor replied, pushing Mickey's head into the water as he spoke. When Mickey rose back above the water he grinned, placing his hand behind The Doctor's head, pushing him under the water himself, some of the water getting into his mouth, breathing deeply out, sending bubbles to the surface, before coming back up, taking a deep breath in. The Doctor turned at Mickey, a mischievous look on his face.

"Now it's on?" Mickey said with a bit of a scared look on his face seeing the look in The Doctor's eyes. He simply nodded, before diving in the water, swimming towards Mickey.

"Oh you two," Rose laughed. The Doctor stopped his assault on Mickey, exchanging a look, and both looked at Rose with mad smiles. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no," Rose said trying to slowly back away, holding a finger up trying to get the two to back off, but the two continued towards her. The Doctor dived under the water, swimming below Rose, and beyond her, so he was behind her. Rose turned around, seeing The Doctor rise above the surface. She then turned back to Mickey who was then behind her, and then turned so the two were beside her, slowly backing up. "Don't you dare," Rose warned, though behind it, there was a laugh. The Doctor gained distance faster than she thought, reaching her side, hugging her around her waist with a smile. He dived backwards, taking her with him, submerging both of them in the water, The Doctor holding Rose close to him, his eyes staying open and watching her, as she closed her eyes, exhaling through her nose, as the two came back up.

"I got you," The Doctor said, letting go of Rose, who was breathing heavily.

"You did," Rose said her tongue playing on her teeth, before she quickly pushed The Doctor under the water, him rising and looking surprised at her. "Now I got you," Rose replied with a smile on her face.

"Oh I'm going to get you for th–" The Doctor began, as both of their heads were pushed under the water, the two rising to see Mickey nearby with a victorious look on his face. The three burst out into laughter.

However, it was interrupted by the pool area shaking like an earthquake, sending them back and forth in the water, waves building slightly. The Doctor quickly grabbed ahold of Rose, swimming her to the edge, Mickey following him, and three managed to at least get out of the water, but it was still quaking badly. The Doctor quickly ran, nearly tripping once, out of the room, Rose and Mickey following far behind him. He reached the control room before the other two, and immediately began pulling levers and buttons, hitting it with his hammer, rushing around the room, dripping with water.

"Come on girl," The Doctor said, the lights going out, low lights coming back on, and gas masks dropping from the ceiling, "No! No, no, no, no!"

"What happened?" Rose asked.

"She left on her own… she doesn't normally do that," The Doctor said clenching his teeth and a fist, setting his head on the console, uncurling his fist and rubbing the surface, "I'm sorry, girl. I should have been here. She's… dead." Silence fell between the trio of swim suit clad travelers, still dripping in the low lights in the control room. The Doctor had a very grim look on his face, while the other two were confused.

"What happened, Doctor? She's dead? How? Is that even possible?" Mickey asked looking worriedly at The Doctor.

"She is– was alive!" The Doctor yelled at the same time as Rose nodded to answer Mickey's questions as well, her worry increasing. The Doctor tried calming himself down, turning his head towards Rose, with a pained look. Rose's eyes met his and she quickly hurried forward, wrapping her arms around him. He didn't fight, but he didn't hug her back, standing there limp, now staring blankly at a wall. Mickey finally broke the silence once more.

"I don't understand. Where are we?" Mickey asked, walking towards the TARDIS door, "If I were to open–" Mickey reached for the door, but The Doctor's voice made him jump back.

"Don't!" The Doctor ordered, though his body remained the same, Rose looking up at him when he spoke, "Out there… it's nothing. Nothing is out there." Rose looked confused, though The Doctor did not seem to notice, his look focused towards Mickey now, but he seemed to answer her silent questions. "We fell through a hole in the Time Vortex."

"So?" Mickey asked raising an eyebrow.

"When one falls through a hole in the Time Vortex, they end up in the Void… if my people… were still alive, they could give us a tow, and sew up the hole, but…" The Doctor explained, trailing off, finally wrapping his arms around Rose, holding her closely, "Nothingness… The lost dimension. That's where we are." Mickey huffed, before he turned towards the door again, and pulled it open, The Doctor being distracted.

"So… in other words… London?" Mickey asked turning towards the two. The Doctor quickly looked up, ending the embrace, Rose turning towards the door as well, seeing out the door and into London.

"What?" The Doctor said completely confused. He pushed back Mickey exiting the TARDIS, the other two following him. The Doctor quickly walked down the streets, still in just his swim shorts, gathering looks from those who were walking by. Rose had on a towel, which she grabbed on the way out, around her waist, while Mickey was like The Doctor in just swim trunks. Mickey picked up a newspaper nearby, his hands fairly dry by now.

"First of February, this year. Not far flung, is it?" Mickey asked. The Doctor crossed his arms, stopping, looking out over a bridge.

"London?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, yeah," Mickey answered. Rose saw what The Doctor was getting at, but Mickey was reading the newspaper and did not look up to see what The Doctor saw.

"With zeppelins?" The Doctor questioned. Mickey looked up in confusion, seeing the zeppelins in the sky, the last to see them.

"Well, I dunno. Some new zeppelin festival?" Mickey asked.

"It's not your London," The Doctor said his eyes looking to his side, down the street, then back at the zeppelins in the sky.

"What you're saying is that we're in a parallel world?" Mickey asked.

"Parallel world, where?" Rose asked, not quite understanding, though her eyes followed The Doctor's short glance to the side.

"You know what I mean, you see it in movies. A universe that are slightly changed from ours; this one has zeppelins in the sky," Mickey explained. Rose was completely turned to the side, listening, seeing what The Doctor had seen.

"One where he's alive," Rose pointed out staring at a sign with her father's face on it, with one of his drinks. "Where my dad is still alive." The Doctor turned towards Rose, who had rushed towards the sign, following her, Mickey following behind The Doctor.

"Don't look at it, Rose," The Doctor said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She reached forward, touching the sign, triggering a video where her father said for them to 'trust him on this' smiling.

"He's a success. He was always planning these daft little schemes. Health food, drinks and stuff. Everyone said they were useless. But he did it," Rose said with a small smile on her face. The Doctor turned her around looking at her very seriously.

"Rose, if you've ever trusted me, then listen to me now. Stop looking at it. Your father's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is a Pete. For all we know, he's got his own Jackie, his own Rose. His own daughter who is someone else, but not you. You can't see him. Not ever," The Doctor explained and Rose bit her lower lip.

"Can we get changed into something more comfortable?" Rose asked looking down at her bikini, getting fairly cold from the damp and the little coverage the bikini provided. The Doctor smiled widely.

"Yeah, let's go," The Doctor answered offering his hand, which she took, Mickey following behind them once more, feeling like a third wheel more and more.

* * *

"All is not lost!" came a shout from across the TARDIS. Rose had been getting changed, and she thought The Doctor was as well, until she heard this shout, coming unmistakably from The Doctor. Of course, her first order of business was to see if she could still call home with her phone, and found herself connected, and had been distracted on learning about this world until the doctor had yelled. Rose quickly threw her phone to the side and pulled on her shirt and ran out of her room, and down the hall to the control room, where, her short haired, short clad Doctor was holding up something that was glowing, and it wasn't just the glow that his face was giving off either, with that wide smile, the bruise still purple on his cheek, but completely ecstatic.

"What is it?" Rose asked with a smile which she could help but have because his happiness was very contagious.

"Life, Rose!" The Doctor said jumping around and towards her.

"What?" Rose asked.

"She's not dead. Not yet," The Doctor said letting a happy laugh out, "The TARDIS. She's not dead. When there's even the dimmest of light, there is life!" The Doctor held the crystal in front of him. "She just needs some help to recover." He held the crystal close to his mouth and breathed out onto the crystal.

"What'd you do?" Rose asked as the crystal's glow grew as he breathed onto it, completely confused as to what was happening.

"I just saved her. Gave her ten years of my life. She'll be as good as ever in… oh, twenty four hours!" The Doctor said happily. Mickey entered from the TARDIS door at that moment. "She's alive!" The Doctor shouted like a mad scientist.

"We'll be home in a day," Rose replied.

"Well, why are we here in the first place?" Mickey asked, "It's not like we were travelling, just sitting on Earth." The Doctor's face dropped.

"That was my fault. I… turned on a system where the TARDIS would retreat if it were in danger, but as it was trying to guide itself to a safe place… it fell through a hole. All the while we were having fun in the pool, not knowing until she fell through the hole, right into another universe. Before I could travel easily from one universe to another, but when… my people all died, the walls were closed up. It nearly killed her to get out of the void. I think she used almost all her energy to get us safely here." He placed a hand against the console, "I'm sorry, girl."

"So we have twenty four hours on a parallel world?" Mickey asked.

"Shore leave. As long as we keep our heads down," The Doctor replied some of the bounce in his step and voice returning, "Twenty four hours in this world, then we'll leave, alright?" Rose bit her lower lip and looked down at the floor.

"My phone connected. There's this Cybus Network. It finds your phone. It gave me Internet access," Rose said looking up at The Doctor's now extremely worried look.

"Don't believe anything it says," The Doctor warned, "It's not the right world."

"I don't exist," Rose said, and Mickey raised an eyebrow, but The Doctor stayed calm and firm in his demeanor.

"This isn't our world Rose, of course there would be changes," The Doctor said evenly.

"They're rich. They've got a house and cars, and everything they want. But they haven't got me. I've got to see him," Rose said, before she turned and headed for the door, but The Doctor placed his hand on her shoulder, holding her back some.

"You can't," The Doctor said, "What are you planning on saying? I'm your daughter from another universe where you die? You can't go see him."

"I just want to see him. I won't tell him anything," Rose insisted.

"I can't let you," The Doctor said firmly with a very serious look on his face, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

"You just said twenty four hours!" Rose retorted with a huff.

"You can't just go and become their daughter. It doesn't work like that. Right Mickey?" The Doctor turned and looked at the other man who was standing by the door.

"You said twenty four hours, yeah?" Mickey asked looking between The Doctor and Rose, before turning around and pushing open the door.

"Where're you going?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, I can do what I want," Mickey replied, exiting the TARDIS, Rose following, and The Doctor running after them, picking up his jacket from one of the railings and putting it on, still in just his swim shorts, and now his leather jacket.

"I've got the address and everything," Rose said turning back towards The Doctor and the TARDIS, Mickey walking the opposite way.

"Stay! Both of you! You promised you wouldn't wander off!" The Doctor insisted, "Mickey! Rose! Get back here!"

"I'm not wandering, I've got places to go. Specific ones," Mickey stated, turning towards him with a small apologetic smile.

"Me too," Rose said. The Doctor glared at Rose then at Mickey.

"Where do you need to go?" The Doctor asked furiously, though trying to keep himself calm and not frustrated in his two companions.

"Well, you don't know anything about me, do you? It's always about Rose. I'm just a spare part," Mickey said with a shrug.

"That's not true!" The Doctor insisted, but Rose interrupted Mickey's reply.

"I'm sorry. I've got to go," Rose said, making The Doctor look back at her, feeling teamed up on.

"Go on, then. There's no choice, is there? You can only chase after one of us. It's never going to be me, is it?" Mickey asked shaking his head, still watching to see what The Doctor were to do, if it were really even a question.

"Back here, alright? Twenty four hours!" The Doctor ordered, keeping his eye on Rose out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah," Mickey replied, and The Doctor ran off after Rose, after which Mickey added under his breath, "If I haven't found something better." Mickey sighed, and ran off the opposite direction that The Doctor and Rose had gone.

* * *

"Mickey's mum just couldn't cope. His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sort of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran. She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him! And then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It's about five years ago now. I was still in school," Rose explained when The Doctor caught up to her.

"I never knew," The Doctor replied feeling a bit bad, looking back in the direction of the TARDIS and Mickey's path.

"Well, you never asked," Rose said looking at The Doctor.

"You never said," he responded firmly, "Normally leave the domestics out of everything, including personal history. Usually it's the same old story with you humans."

"That's Mickey. I suppose I, we just take him for granted. Do you think she's still alive, his gran?" Rose wondered with a thoughtful look.

"Could be. Or could not. Like I said, parallel world, gingerbread house. We need to get out of here as fast as we can," The Doctor answered. Before Rose could reply, the people around them all stopped, confusing the pair, until the earpieces began blinking.

"They've stopped," The Doctor said walking in front of one of them and waving his hand in front of their eyes, the looking at the earpieces, "It's the earpieces. Like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected together." Rose pulled out her phone, and looked at it.

"It's on my phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting? News, international news, sports, weather, TV schedules, lottery numbers," Rose said reading off the downloaded data, "I hope I don't get charged for all this data."

"They get it direct. Downloaded right into their heads," The Doctor explained with a small chuckle for her last comment, "Everyone shares the same information. A daily download published by Cybus Industries." Everyone laughed, as the daily joke flashed on Rose's phone and continued on with their business. "You lot, you're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade."

"Oi, not my lot. Different world, remember," Rose reminded The Still Only Half-dressed Doctor of the situation.

"It's not so far off your world. This place is only parallel," The Doctor replied, looking at Rose's phone, which was pulled up on a site about Pete Tyler, following a link to his company's owners, "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries, owners of just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mister Pete Tyler's very well connected." The Doctor frowned and looked at Rose. "This is very familiar."

"Were you here before?" Rose asked curiously, "You did say you could travel between worlds before."

"No, I haven't. Something about Cybus Industries," The Doctor said handing her phone back to her, her eyes meeting his.

"Where else to get more information than Mr. Well Connected himself?" Rose asked with a hopeful smile on her face. He sighed.

"Alright. But only to see him. Won't tell him anything about where we come from, promise?" The Doctor asked.

"I promise," Rose confirmed with a smile, grabbing The Doctor hand and pulling him down the road, running.

* * *

The Doctor still hadn't the time to change from his swim trunks and jacket as they reached the house.

"Mum's birthday, February the first," Rose said explaining the visitors. Limos seemed to pull up to the house, and from the distance they were at, they could see Pete Tyler standing at the front door greeting some of those who just arrived. Rose's face was bright and glowing. The Doctor looked at her next to him, and smiled.

"Do you want to meet him?" The Doctor asked.

"You said I could just see him," Rose replied.

""Well, given Pete Tyler's guest list, I wouldn't mind a look. I don't see the harm in meeting him, as long as you're careful about what you say," The Doctor replied, to which Rose responded with a wide grin, wrapping her arms around him.

"Thank you!" Rose said happily.

"And there is one guaranteed way of getting inside," The Doctor said.

"Psychic paper," Rose supplied.

"Who do you want to go as?" The Doctor asked.

* * *

The two entered the main room of the house, carrying trays, Rose in a waitress outfit, and The Doctor out of his jacket, and in a tuxedo.

"Out of everything in the world, you pick us as the help?" Rose asked with a huff, carrying a tray with wine on it.

"Best way, isn't? The help get to float around everywhere, not necessarily talk, but overhear everything," The Doctor replied with a smile on his face, as someone took some wine off of his plate.

"What happened to you?" the man who took wine from The Doctor asked The Doctor seeing the bruise on his face.

"The Missus and I had a fight, she can get a bit rough," The Doctor replied glancing at Rose with a wide smile.

"Ah, I see. What did she catch you doing?" the man asked.

"Oh, something I probably shouldn't have been doing," The Doctor admitted.

"I see," the man said with a laugh, "Be careful, now. You don't need one on the other side."

"I will be sure, sir!" The Doctor replied with a laugh, turning towards Rose who crossed her arms as best she could with the tray in her arms.

"And you couldn't have gotten rid of that bruise before we got here?" Rose asked.

"Why would I? I don't normally get bruises," The Doctor replied with a large smile. Rose hit him in the shoulder with her free hand, uncrossing her arms. "What was that for?" The Doctor asked rubbing the spot she hit.

"Maybe you'll get another bruise," Rose suggested.

"Do you really think?" The Doctor asked excitedly. Rose looked at him incredulously. "I'm just kidding," The Doctor added with a laugh, "I'll get rid of it later, I promise. It's really getting annoying, actually, making my face hurt when I smile." The two quieted as one of their fellow servers came up to them, a brunette woman with salmon pinwheels.

"You two better stop talking, and start going. The boss will get angry if you don't," the woman warned. The Doctor nodded.

"Sorry, we'll get to work," he apologized.

"Just a fair warning. I won't turn you in or anything," the brunette replied with a laugh, before walking off.

"Thanks," Rose said after her, and smirked at The Doctor before she split from him.

* * *

It was a little while later, Rose had a chat with her father, which ended with Pete going to talk with some guy named Stevie about something about Torchwood. The two had found out anyone that was anyone was at this party, even the president (yes, it was Britain, and yet they had a president, even Rose was shocked). Pete Tyler was most definitely a popular guy, with an important job. And his wife and he were not happy with each other and were splitting up. Rose was determined to get to the bottom of it, but The Doctor caught her before Rose could find her mother.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked. Rose put on a fake smile.

"Of course I am. I mean… I still have Mum at home, these aren't my parents," Rose said though a bit of upset came through, "They have everything…"

"They don't have you," The Doctor replied seriously.

"Yeah… that's right," Rose said biting her lower lip as someone took something from her tray, "We should get to mingling, the boss won't be happy if she finds us." Rose began to walk off. The Doctor caught her shoulder.

"It's not our world, remember that. Remember your mum at home, and your father when we visited him, alright?" The Doctor requested. Rose smiled a bit more, realistically too.

"I promise, I will," Rose replied, and The Doctor let go of her shoulder and the two began doing their job once more. However, it wasn't long before The Doctor snuck his way into an office of Pete Tyler, and began logging onto the computer. It took him two tries to guess the password: JackieTyler4ever. On the screen, already pulled up was a presentation. On it was a face of a man, who began describing how precious a human brain was. He observed the screen for a few more moments, before a grim look spread across his face.

"Cybers," The Doctor whispered to himself. He quickly bounded from the room, as fast as he could, getting to the main room, where he saw Rose, who looked somewhat upset.

"Rose," The Doctor said quickly hurrying towards her, but someone caught him.

"You," the man said, holding The Doctor back, "You are ordered by the president of Britain to come with me."

"What'd I do?" The Doctor asked.

"You match the description of The Notorious Doctor," the man said. He was tall with jet black hair that reached his shoulders.

"Now's not the time," The Doctor quickly said, pushing passed the man, "We're all in grave danger."

"Yeah, because you're here, Doctor," the man insisted, "My name is Steve, director of Torchwood. My friends call me Stevie."

"Hm. Interesting. Now, get out of my way so I can save all of your lives," The Doctor insisted, pushing past the man making it to where Rose was, Steve following. "It's happening again."

"What is?" Rose asked, having just talked with her mother about her marriage to Pete Tyler.

"I've seen them before," The Doctor said quickly taking her hand.

"Hold on. What are what?" Steve asked.

"Who is this?" Rose asked.

"Steve this is Rose. Rose this is Steve," The Doctor quickly introduced, "They're coming. Now."

"What are?" Steve asked.

"Cybermen," The Doctor replied, just as tin soldiers smashed through some French doors, causing a panic, but no one could escape, because they were already surrounded. The president took out his phone, which had rung, answering it.

"I forbade this," The president said.

"What are they… robots?" Rose asked.

"Worse," The Doctor simply said.

"How can it be worse?" Steve wondered, and The Doctor shook his head.

"Who were these people?" The president insisted on the phone.

"Hold up. They are people?" Rose asked.

"Were. Their brains were packed into a metal suit, all emotions stripped away," The Doctor explained.

"Why no emotions?" Rose wondered.

"Because they hurt," Steve interjected before The Doctor could reply.

"Exactly," The Doctor agreed watching the Cybermen carefully.

"I demand to know Lumic! Who were these people?" the president demanded his voice raised. While the party goers did not hear Lumic on the other end, they could very well guess what was going on, especially thanks to The Doctor, Rose and Steve talking about these men. "No it is not good night! I demand you call these… damn it, Lumic." The president dropped the phone to his side and shook his head.

"You will be upgraded," the nearest Cyberman said.

"Into what?" The president asked back with frustration seeping through.

"The next level of mankind. We are Human point two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us," the Cyberman replied in the robotic voice.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what's been done to you, but listen to me. This experiment ends tonight," the president insisted, trying to reason with the poor person placed into such a position as the Cyberman.

"Upgrading is compulsory," the Cyberman informed the man, and everyone else at the party.

"And if I refuse?" he asked.

"Don't," The Doctor warned.

"What if I refuse?"

"I'm telling you, don't."

"What happens if I refuse?"

"Then you are not compatible," the Cyberman informed the president.

"What happens then?" he retorted, frustrated at the lack of information.

"You will be deleted," the Cyberman answered, placing his hand on the president's shoulder, electrocuted to death, and the president fell to the floor. Mass hysteria took the guests, people began running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Actually, not. It was more like people running from mass murderers, not wanting to be killed or taken. In the confusion, The Doctor and Rose, managed to sneak passed the men, finding Pete Tyler out of the house, yelling for his wife.

"Come on," Rose insisted, pulling her father with the two of them.

"I can't leave Jackie behind!" Pete insisted.

"You can't do her any good by going back. You'll just end up getting yourself killed," The Doctor reasoned, pulling Pete along, "We need to get out of here, alright?"

"Who are you? How do you know so much?" Pete asked.

"You wouldn't believe it in a million years," came a hurried voice behind them where Steve was, before The Doctor could even answer the question, "A way out, Pete. Do you know one?"

"The side gates, our best bet," Pete replied and the group quickly ran away the direction Pete pointed. However, they were cut off by Cybermen blocking their way up ahead. The Doctor held his hands up but in the distance they could see two armed figures, which soon opened fire on them. The figures came into view, and soon were by their side.

"Oh my god, look at you," Rose said wrapping her arms around the one who looked a whole like Mickey, "I never thought I would see you again."

"It's Ricky to the rescue," The Doctor scoffed.

"No offense, but I don't know who the hell you two are," the Mickey look alike with his comrade with blonde spikey hair getting their guns ready to fire again. Soon another Mickey came into the mix.

"Yeah, Rose, that's the other me," the second Mickey said with a relieved smile when he saw them.

"Oh if things weren't bad enough. Two Mickeys," The Doctor said with a smile, though an incredulous look on his face seeing two Mickeys.

"It's Ricky," Ricky said with a huff.

"You're kidding," The Doctor said, before he continued on, knowing the severity of the situation, "I suggest you put your guns down. They won't work on them." Now there were Cybermen on all sides of them, tightening into a circle around them. The blonde one began shooting, at which The Doctor grabbed the man's gun out of his hand, dropping it on the ground. "It doesn't work, you idiot. No wonder you hang out with Ricky."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ricky and Mickey said at the same time.

"We surrender!" The Doctor called out holding his hands up.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked furiously, "We can't just surrender."

"We're surrounded. We have to surrender!" The Doctor insisted, "Just trust me." Rose put her arms into the air, and soon Pete followed, as did the others. "We surrender. We're good stock. No need to waste us. We volunteer. We volunteer to be upgraded."

"You are rogue elements. You are incompatible," the Cyberman who seemed to lead the group said.

"But we surrender!" The Doctor insisted.

"You will be deleted," the lead Cyberman informed the group.

"We've surrendered. We've surrendered!" The Doctor insisted, but the Cybermen seemed unfazed by their surrender.

You are inferior. Man will be reborn as Cyberman, but you will perish under maximum deletion," The lead informed them, holding out its hand, and the whole group began to chant together, "Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete. Delete."

**What did you think? Also, make sure to tell me if there is a specific episode between now  
and Doomsday that you would really like to see posted. I'm on the fence about Idiot's Lantern  
and Fear Her. Don't think Love&Monsters would really be much of a change. **

**Also, did you all like the Steve addition? He'll be cooler, most likely. I just liked the idea  
of the Torchwood guy from this episode surviving. If so, we'll see more of him in  
the two Doomsday episodes, and the next chapter. **


End file.
